AVI STEINHARDT/Courier-Post Seventh-grade students at the Clearview Regional Middle School help fill packages destined for military personnel serving in the Middle East.

In a schoolwide show of support, students collected thousands of items ranging from Tastykakes to Chap Sticks, baby wipes to breath mints, bundled them up in shoeboxes and shipped them off to the Persian Gulf.

Teacher Barbie Pagano last week said the supplies will go to men and women serving aboard amphibious dock ship USS Gunston Hall as well as Marines in Iraq.

Pagano said Michael Bunch, a graduate of Clearview High School, is aboard the Gunston Hall and that Cpl. Jason Solano, whose wife Kristen Svenson teaches art at the middle school, is with a Marine detachment in Iraq. A third connection to the school is Capt. James Finnegan, a helicopter pilot who is related to teacher Heather Moran, Pagano said.

She said all of the school's roughly 800 students wanted to be involved, but weren't sure how.

The response to the shoebox program, suggested by a parent who saw one on the Today show, was overwhelming, she said.

"Our initial goal was 100 but we filled 292," she said.

Teacher Monica Kelly said a list of items soldiers and sailors aren't likely to receive from the military was distributed to students.

"They're things you would have in your own home," Kelly said.

She said parents donated about $1,000 in cash to help cover the cost of postage. The drive began about three weeks ago and concluded with the shipment of goods in the shoeboxes last week.

The teachers said they do not instruct students to support or oppose the war but present facts and let them sort out opinions on their own.

Eighth-grader Lauren Salber, 13, said she brought food items, hand sanitizer, candy, mints and gum for her shoebox. And she stuck in a letter.

"I thanked them," she said. "I told them I hope they enjoy the stuff we sent and that our prayers are with them."