Two Hooksett Memorial School classes wrote letters to sick and disabled veterans at Walter Reed Hospital.

The cards, created by Robin Githmark’s fifth-grade class and Jacqueline Wood’s thirdgrade class, were to beshipped out soon.

Irene Cote, a parent with a child in each class, helped organize the project. She ran into a problem when it was found that security policies at Walter Reed prevented them from sending general letters directly to the hospital. All of the letters would have to be individually addressed.

This was after the kids had already started making the cards.

She and a co-worker at the New Hampshire Neuro Spine Institute, Kame McAuliffe, tried to find people at Walter Reed to address the letters to, asking McAuliffe’s husband to use his military connections, but to no avail.

Cote contacted Help Hospitalized Veterans, a national organization based in Winchester, Calif., and found the answer to their problem.

Help Hospitalized Veterans makes and distributes craft kits to veterans hospitals across the country, studies the benefits of craft therapy for vets, and provides veterans hospitals with craft care specialists, a liaison who facilitates craft programs for the veterans.

Cote e–mailed the donor relations department there and confirmed that the letters would have to be personally addressed. The department then offered their connection to Walter Reed to help the letters get there.

“This organization said that they would take it upon themselves personally to distribute the cards through their contact person at Walter Reed,” Cote said, their contact being the craft care specialist at the hospital. Cote said students in the two classes put a lot of effort and thought into the cards, and she was relieved that they wouldn’t be disappointed.

“It was just wonderful to see these kids doing this independently, not being told what to write,” Cote said.

Her son, Joshua Cote, 10, said it was important that the vets get the cards around Thanksgiving. “It’s really good because they’re not going to be with their families. They’re going to be lonely,” he said.