Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com

On behalf of Maltby Intermediate School in Brighton, volunteer veterans have delivered True American Hero Gift Packs to fellow veterans at the VA Hospital in Ann Arbor. The gift bags were presented recently in recognition of the veterans' service to America.

According to Maltby representatives Karen Quinn Storey and Jenny Anderson, the veterans hospital was gifted with 135 filled bags to hand out to patients. Storey says the gift bags from Brighton were sufficient to fill two trucks.

Anderson is a Maltby student counselor, while Storey is a special education teacher as well as a Multi-Tiered System of Support facilitator, which provides interventions for students who require additional support.

"The students hand-decorated all the bags, and all Maltby students and staff participated,” Storey says. The activity involved filling the gift bags - all decorated by the students - with items from every home room. Each student leadership representative was responsible for making four hero gift packs with a minimum of five items picked from a list.

The gift bags were filled with homemade holiday greeting cards, mints, crackers, granola bars, puzzles, socks, gloves, hats, puzzles and colored pencils, as well as gift cards to various businesses.

Some 28 leadership students led the holiday gift operation at the 800-student school, located at Bauer and Brighton Lake roads in Genoa Township, west of Brighton.