Area veterans are set to get a special delivery courtesy of elementary students in the Palmerton Area School District.

With the nation celebrating Veterans Day on Monday, Towamensing Elementary students completed a project they hope will give a lift to the spirits of local men and women who have served in the Armed Forces.

“Our students have created around 400 cards for the veterans that the Valor Clinic assists with, as well as those in the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center,” said Towamensing fourth-grade teacher Susan Warakomski. “Glen Lippincott, from Valor, will be helping to deliver our cards with the people who work along with him to help the veterans.”

Students shaped the cards into hearts and incorporated the colors red, white and blue, as a tribute to the veterans and the nation they served.

On Monday, Towamensing’s student council hosted a red, white and blue day with both students and staff asked to dress in those colors.

“We’re at a point where 9/11 was 18 years ago and the further we move away from events like that, the more people start to lose touch with what days like Veterans Day means,” Warakomski said. “We’re hopeful through this activity, the students get a better understanding and appreciation for what the military is about. There was a time when schools and businesses were closed for Veterans Day. That isn’t the case anymore, so while our students are here we want to educate them and help them understand what the men and women of the military have done and continue to do for us.”

Lippincott, dressed as Santa, will hand deliver the cards to the hospital in Wilkes-Barre and veterans who are too ill to make it down to bingo or other social activities.

“For some of those veterans in the hospital, their families don’t come see them anymore,” Lippincott said. “When Santa Claus comes in there and hands them a card, their faces light up, sometimes they tear up, and it can get very emotional. The fact that these students took the time to make them a card, it means the world to them. It shows someone cares.”

Some of the cards will also be attached to the Thanksgiving meals Valor gives to underserved veterans.

The cards were just part of the school’s Veterans Day activities, however, Warakomski said.

Students were asked to donate jars of peanut butter, pouches or cans of tuna fish, Dinty Moore stew or socks.

“These are the items in which Mr. Lippincott said are great to pass out to the homeless veterans in which they interact with,” she said.

Warakomski said students will also be involved with Operation Touch of Home in Monroe County.

“These are items that may go all over the country, all over the world and I hope it will hit home with students how special that is and how much our men and women appreciate it,” she said.