When U.S. Army serviceman Corey Betrix was deployed to the Middle East in January, his son, Gannon, took it hard.

“He had never been away from his dad for a long period of time, so it was a shock for him,” said Stafford Township McKinley Avenue School third-grade teacher Kelly Bodziak, whose class, including Gannon, on April 22 filled 10 boxes with some 1,200 items that were going to be sent as care packages through Operation Jersey Cares.