Instead of pink cupcakes, Nancy Wendt's fourth-grade class at Roosevelt Elementary in Eau Claire was pushing to mark Valentine's Day not with sugar...but with TLC.

"I wanted to see if I could really challenge the students to forgo Valentine's Day to bring in supplies to give to the troops," Wendt said.

In came many items -- deodorant, toothpaste, pencils, handwritten notes -- all from this group and enough to fill up 16 boxes.

"The cabinets overflowed," Wendt said.

That was supposed to be that for Mrs. Wendt and her 24 students. "All we knew is that they were going to a contact person somewhere over there."

Until...

"On tuesday, I got a reply and I started reading the letter," Wendt said. "He started thanking us for all of the supplies and then telling us what life was like over there. I got to the next paragraph and he informed us he was the father of a second-grader here at Roosevelt and that I had taught his oldest daughter, too, years ago."

Of all the odds. Sargeant First Class Brian Walker offered this "hello" to his daughter Megan, just down the hall in one of roosevelt's second grade classes.

"When we got to the paragraph about being a Roosevelt dad, she got all red and was probably a little embarrassed," Wendt said.

This twist along the string has left the students back in Mrs. Wendt's class with a new vision of those serving in the Middle East -- and what they are leaving behind.

Megan is actually speechless right now but that is due to having her tonsils taken out recently. Here is one final odd turn in all of this: a cousin of SFC Walker is also in Mrs. Wendt's fourth-grade class.