Students at Immaculate Heart of Mary School, Atlanta, support overseas members of the military with care packages several times a year. But this time students were on the receiving end of thank you notes and pictures.

Soldiers wrote to the students how much the handwritten notes, lip balm, crackers and assorted odds and ends mean to the soldiers.

To the surprise of the school, the package even found a former student, Nathan Shaffner, IHM class of 2002, now a first lieutenant in the Army.

“Many of my guys rarely receive packages, and small snacks from home were even rarer for some. I can’t describe how much the little things mean to them. Just a bag of candy from home can have a tremendous impact on their morale. Y’all made a huge impact on us and thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” he wrote.