Pocono News Section

Bookbags to Afghanistan

Bookbags to Afghanistan - Friday, December 5, 2008 at 6:05PM EST

A soldier is back home from Afghanistan , after serving up a special project to kids.

Army captain Tom Meyer of South Gibson, Susquehanna county returned home Tuesday.

He and his family ran the program, "Bookbags to Afghanistan ."

Meyer says it's great to be home.

"It's just unbelievable. You know, I can't even describe the feeling and emotion of stepping off the plane," says Meyer.

Since March, Meyer's been stationed in Afghanistan .

His unit helped rebuild buildings, including schools.

That's where Meyer put his Bookbags to Afghanistan program into action.

"You see how they're being educated and you see their schools. I mean there's still children being educated outdoors," says Meyer.

But now, some of those children have school supplies thanks to Meyer.

In July we showed you Meyers family preparing to send more than 300 book bags.

They gathered donated supplies from Elementary schools and libraries.

As you can see in Meyer's pictures, they made it to the right place.

We showed our report to meyer.

It's was the first time he watched it.

Everyone's help makes him feel great.

"The love really is what it came down to for what they did for love of country and willingness to support people that they didn't even know," says Meyer.

And helping people he didn't know inspired Meyer.

"You have teachers over there that don't even get paid their salary for months, but they're still doing it. So you see the need and the need is just overwhelming," says Meyer.

Now Captain Meyer is home for the holidays.

But he knows the supplies he dropped off to kids and teachers will help for a long time.

Captain Meyer's brigade is headquartered in Scranton .

This was his second big deployment overseas.

He also served in the Bosnia crisis.