LAWRENCE — Army 1st Lt. Philip Dowd is 6,500 miles away in Afghanistan, but he will always have a piece of his hometown with him.
In addition to his parents and friends sending packages every week, students at Community Day Charter School will be corresponding with him through letters and on writing letters to him hopefully on Skype.
Students in the lower school adopted Dowd as part of a community service program.
"Getting letters from you would mean a lot to him," Erin Walsh, head of the lower school told the children recently.
In addition to the letters, students will put together packages for him and his army unit, the 57th Signal Company. Walsh said they also hope to talk to Phillip through Skype.
Last Friday, staff members and second, third and fourth-graders got to know Dowd through pictures and stories his mother Susan Dowd shared with them.
"It's really important that they are in contact with home because they are so far removed," said Dowd, a computer teacher at the Leahy School. "Letters are important because they can keep it with them, read them again and carry that piece of home with them."
Susan Dowd said she and her husband Jay communicate with Philip mainly through email. Last week, he wrote to tell them he woke up at 3 a.m. Afghan time to watch the Patriots game against the San Diego Chargers last Sunday.
One of the photographs Susan Dowd showed students was of her son posing in New York with the Twin Towers in the background on Sept. 1, 2001- just 10 days before the terrorist attacks, when the family drove daughter Livy to Manhattan College for her freshman year.
"She was only two miles away when the towers were hit and we could not communicate with her for a day," Susan Dowd said.
"Philip told us one of the reasons he joined the Army was because of the events of Sept. 11," she said.
Philip Dowd graduated from Manhattan College in May of 2009 with a bachelor's degree in communications and joined the Army in August of that year.
"He has always made us proud and this is just another way of doing that," Dowd said.
The slide show featured pictures of him with his pet turtle, playing baseball, graduating from Manhattan College, in his Army uniform and in Afghanistan. As the photos flashed on the screen, she told stories about her son.
Dowd, 25, was born and raised in Lawrence, not far from the charter school on Prospect Street.
He was a lifeguard at the YMCA in Lawrence where he also taught swimming.
As a student at Austin Prep School in Reading, he was a member of the football, baseball and track teams.
Walsh said the school had a lesson on the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 as well as a moment of silence for those who died in the attacks.
"Part of the message is helping the community," she said. "He is a Lawrence native serving our country." Walsh said they also want to learn about the condition of children in Afghanistan and how students at Community Day Charter School can help them.
"The goal is to have children from Lawrence make a difference," Walsh said.
