Care packages sent to troops

Thanks to the communities’ efforts, about 175 soldiers serving overseas will receive a care package for Christmas.

Earl McDonald, VFW Post No. 2321 Cmdr., and District No. 4 Cmdr., said most of the packages are going to Afghanistan or to the Mediterranean. In fact, 44 of the 177 packages are being sent to the USS Whidbey Island.

The care packages were put together Saturday by VFW members, local volunteers and members of a local Girl Scout brownie group.

On Monday members of the VFW, including McDonald, Jim Shoemaker, Ralph Howell, Tony Blair and Joe Tallon; and VFW Auxiliary members Sandy Tallon and Anita Shoemaker, were busy loading the packages into trucks, driving them to the post office and unloading them at the post office. Sandy and Anita were helping address the boxes at the post office, while the VFW members wheeled them into the building.

Most of the care packages contained Christmas cards from Sweetwater County Children, Girl Scout cookies, a copy of The Green River Star and the Daily Rocket Miner, toiletries, deodorant and lots of candy.

The care packages are more than just a box stuffed with items.

“It’s a piece of home,” McDonald said. “They realize people are thinking about them around the holiday.”

Of course, none of this would be possible if it weren’t for the communities support in both Green River and Rock Springs.

“All the stuff we got was donated,” he said.

He wanted to especially thank the sixth-grade class at Monroe Intermediate School, who gave the VFW most of the care-package donations.

Even though McDonald knows the soldier is likely to share the contents of the care package, they still stamp “please share” on the outside of it as a reminder.

He said the care package reaches more than just the one solider it is addressed to. Once the soldier receives it, he or she will share with those serving with them and then they share with the children in the communities they are stationed at.

McDonald, who served during the Vietnam War, said he can recall getting a care package from his mother. He said a lot of times the entire unit he was serving with knew about the care package before he did. They would all gather around and see what McDonald had received. McDonald said they would share the crumpled chocolate chip cookies his mother had baked and sent to him. It really lifted their spirits.

Not only did the VFW receive food donations and cards, but it also received monetary donations, which went to pay for shipping the care packages.

Last year, it cost the VFW $15 per box to send the care packages. McDonald figured it would be about $3,000 to ship all of them this year.