By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
MARGATE – It was just a little thing to the children who painted them, but to the soldiers who tucked them in their pockets before being shipped out to Afghanistan, the red-white-and-blue stones were something special.
The soldiers named them “freedom stones.”
It all started in November when Joy Kanter gathered a box of small flat stones and gave them to the boys and girls attending one of the Fantastic Friday night events at the Union Avenue School and instructed them to paint the stones the colors of the American flag.
Kanter, who coordinates the Fantastic Friday program at the Union Avenue School here in conjunction with the Margate Department of Recreation and Education, planned to give the stones to soldiers as Veterans Day approached.
Margate resident and U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Waters took the painted stones from Kanter at the Veterans Day ceremony Nov. 11 to Fort Dix, where he is stationed, to be given to soldiers shipping out overseas after training at the base.
Each stone was different, but all were red, white and blue and just the right size to slide into a pocket to keep. And that is just what the soldiers did as they exited the dining hall after receiving them. They pocketed that reminder that children from Margate and Longport are thinking of them and hoping they come home safe.
As Kanter read the note that came from the base mobilization commander at Fort Dix to the members of the Margate City Commission Feb. 22, the mayor and commissioners voiced their appreciation for Kanter and the young artists’ efforts that allowed the soldiers to have something tangible to take with them.
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