Soldier gives thank-you to student

A student from the Odebolt-Arthur middle school received an unexpected surprise from an Iowan in the military during a school assembly. Principal Chuck Foy says it all started when the six grade girl went to Western Iowa Tech for a special program. He says it was an educational and career exploration day for the students and one of the things they did was make care packages for the troops. One of the packages went to Private Tony Kasdorf of Sioux City, who decided to present the girl with some items from Iraq when he came home on leave. The student, Taylor Rucker, knew of the assembly, but didn’t know until it started that she’d be honored. He says it started out as something fairly calm, and he says it sort of blossomed from there. Foy says the assembly Tuesday ended up being a good experience for all the students. He says the most interesting part was after Kasdorf presented Rucker with a basketball, and a gym bag and some other things from Iraq, he stayed around with some other soldiers and answered questions from the students. He says they told the students that it’s not all combat, “They talked about things that really got the interest of the middle school kids and talked about things so they really understand what’s going on and I thought that was fantastic.” Kasdorf says there wasn’t anything special or unique about Rucker’s letter, but he says he was just very moved that she took the time to write.