Photo Provided

American troops hand out school supplies in Afghanistan. Summervillian Reid Touchberry asked family and friends to send supplies to this remote area of the country.

Photo Provided

Summervillian Reid Touchberry, in stocking cap, hands out school supplies in Afghanistan.

With a little help from friends and family, a Summervillian was able to outfit 40 Afghan children with school supplies last month.

Reid Touchberry is a civil engineer and a captain in the Air Force, but he comes from a family of educators.

His mother, Debby, was a teacher at Summerville Elementary and his father, Tim, was athletic director at Fort Dorchester High School. His sister and grandmother are also teachers.

Part of Touchberry’s job during his current deployment is to go out into remote areas to check on building projects, his mother said.

During one such visit he met a local who was donating land to build a school and hospital. Touchberry asked if there was anything he could do personally to help the potential school.

The man said the children needed supplies, so Touchberry sent an email to family back in Summerville.

“He knew if he called on his people they’d help out,” Debby Touchberry said.

Debby Touchberry forwarded the plea to other family members. She also reached out to Jennifer Howard, director of communications at MeadWestvaco, because she wanted to get her hands on some MeadWestvaco pencils.

Debby Touchberry had worked with people from MeadWestvaco on a mentoring program at Summerville Elementary, and she remembered that the MeadWestvaco’s pencils were the best. She wanted to send them to Afghanistan, even if she paid for them herself.

But when Howard heard about Touchberry’s request, “she just jumped on it,” Debby Touchberry said.

MeadWestvaco donated supplies and the local Wal-Mart gave a $25 gift certificate, Debby Touchberry said.

Altogether, the family collected basic supplies – paper, folders, pencils, crayons and rulers – for 40 children.

Touchberry sent his mother photos of the Americans handing out the supplies. The visual is striking, she said.

“You see the kids, then you see the barbed wire,” she said. “We just don’t have any conception of how they live.”

Debby Touchberry said her son said in his email that sending the supplies would let the people know that Americans support the Afghans’ “rebirth.”

“You just try to make a difference where you are, and he’ll always try to do that,” she said.

She’s now waiting for the end of his deployment, scheduled for February. He’ll return to his base in Japan, but she hopes he’ll have a few hours of layover on the East Coast so she can see him.

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