On May 31, 2017 as Mohawk Elementary School Students celebrated their last day of school in anticipation of summer break, some fifth grade students also had the opportunity to assist Sergeant First Class Matthew Claycomb of Pittsburgh-based Operation Troop Appreciation (OTA), Mr. David Micco, Mohawk Elementary School custodian, and Mrs. Beth Simari-Zarlingo, district speech-language pathologist and Mohawk OTA Donation Drive coordinator, transport donated care package boxes for deployed troops to a military Humvee.  

Additionally, Mrs. McCullough’s first grade students and Mrs. McBride-Kraynak’s Kindergarten students who were among the top three collecting classrooms in the Mohawk OTA Donation Drive had their picture taken with SFC Claycomb and had the opportunity to ask him questions about the Humvee and United States military (Mr. David Caughey’s class was not available).

Finally, a generous monetary donation of $100.00 was presented to OTA from the medical practice of Lawrence County Family Medicine, doctors Lawrence Fazioli, M.D. and David Shober, D.O.  This brought the combined total district and local business/organization monetary donations for OTA up to $1000.00 in support of our active-duty military troops who are presently away from their families serving overseas!