Paxon Hollow Students Donate Life-Sized Photos of Military Parents

BROOMALL–After sixth-grade geography teacher Angela Matt read an article last year in PARADE magazine about Flat Daddies/Mommies–a life-size photo of the military parent serving overseas helped children of military families cope–Matt felt compelled to share it with her class.

"As a teacher, you really try to do 'real' things in class and not just what you read in books," said Matt.

After she read the article to her class, Matt recalled one student had raised his hand and asked if they could donate a Flat Daddy/Mommy.

And so the fundraiser began but as time progressed, Matt realized the class had already raised past the goal of $49.50 for a Flat Daddy/Mommy to donate and began to raise the bar even higher.

"It was really neat to see how sensitive they [students] were into this," said Matt.

Corey Woodcock, one of the biggest donors in the class, said he kept donating (a total of $30 worth) because "I just thought they would need this more than I would."

For Sorusa Santhosh, a student in Matt's class, she wanted to donate because "it's the satisfaction to know to that, nationally, someone is able to see that their parent is there with them."

 The class ended up raising $251, enough to cover the costs of five Flat Daddies/Mommies for military families.

According to Matt, many of the Flat Daddies/Mommies are used to help young children remember their parent overseas as well as taking photos with them for a family photo or simply seeing them around the home.

"There are so many kids who grow up in a single-parent household because of a parent serving in the military and this will help those children remember them and cope," said Matt about the Flat Daddy/Mommy project. "This is one way we could do something for our men and women protecting this country."

And for one of Matt's students, the fundraiser was a bit more personal for him.

Sixth-grader Nick Dicrecchio has a brother who just served in the Iraq War and came back home two months ago.

Dicrecchio said had he had one of the life-size photos while his brother was away, he would have felt like his brother never left.

"I would have felt like my brother was always here and we would be able to take photos together," said Dicrecchio.

Matt said the class is currently waiting on hearing back from Flat Daddies/Mommies to see which military families the class was able to donate the lifelike photos to.