Local elementary students sing carols for troops overseas

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - It’s starting to feel a lot like Christmas.

Students at Stevens Creek Elementary continued their annual tradition. All seven second-grade classes came together to sing holiday songs to send to troops overseas.

We tagged along for the day to see how they do it.

The students also wrote Christmas cards that will be sent to soldiers. Since August, Melissa Blizzard has been getting the students ready to perform.

“I would put on the background music without vocals, at the beginning of class and let them move, so they could show me what their natural movements were to these songs, and then I just took their ideas, put them together, and taught it to them,” she said.

But this performance isn’t for a live audience, it’s for a camera.

“It’s a tradition here that they perform a holiday show, and they record it, and they send it overseas to our troops who are serving away from their families,” said Blizzard.

“These kids are so much fun, you know, second graders are off the cuff, they’ll just lay it out,” she said.

Burt Sappenfield and Operation Handwarmer are sending this performance to military personnel across the world, in more than 70 countries.

“When you’re 8,000 miles away, and you’re in a little tiny Quonset hut or in a little foreign operating base, having a bunch of kids sing wonderful Christmas songs at Christmastime kind of warms your heart,” he said.

Blizzard hopes these kids will bring joy to those who can’t be home for the holiday.

“It’s a huge sacrifice to be away from your family. It’s a huge sacrifice to serve in any capacity, so the fact that we get to do this is really special,” she said.

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