Some Long Island schoolchildren have a special bond with the American prisoner who was just freed from a Cuban prison after five years.

Last year, students at the Schechter School in Jericho wrote more than two dozen letters to Alan Gross, who grew up in New Hyde Park. Principal Marcey Wagner says a friend was going to Cuba with a group of lawyers around the same time that the letters were written, so she gave them to her to deliver.

"Knowing that this was a slightly precarious task, she taped the letters to the back of her itinerary and brought the letters to Cuba and handed them to the head of the Jewish community in Havana," said Wagner.

Students and staff at the Schechter School weren't sure that their letters would actually make it to Gross, but they got a surprise two months later when a letter arrived from him, thanking them for their support and encouragement.

Gross also said in the letter that he hopes to one day visit the school and thank the students in person.