The soldier opens the box of food, candy, books and other treats. Handing out the contents to her bunk mates, Janna Cronk keeps the socks for herself. She hopes if she has an extra layer her boots won't make the blisters on her feet any worse.
Last month the Junior League collected boxes of items for the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 113 to send overseas. Unit 113 has collected and organized the boxes for three years. The organization sends them to soldiers like Cronk serving in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Staff photo by Joel Andrews |
Sgt.-at-Arms Lucy Burris and Rita Redd, president of the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 113, pack goody bags to send to soldiers overseas.
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Unit 113 has grown every year with friends and relatives of soldiers overseas sending the organization names and addresses. Rita Redd, president of Unit 113, said the post office has also been a big help. If someone comes in to mail a box overseas, postal workers often will ask if they know about Unit 113.
Soldiers with loved ones back home often send over names of fellow brothers and sisters in the armed forces who do not receive mail. Soldiers also share the goodies with others.
"We're trying to target those who don't get anything," Redd said.
One volunteer from Diboll, Bobby Hambrick, has been coming in to help pack boxes since October. Hambrick served in the military from 1966 through 1972 and said they never had any support like what Unit 113 has been doing for the soldiers.
"I would have liked to have gotten just a letter," Hambrick said. "It would have meant the world."
Members of the Junior League met last month to gather together what they'd collected for Unit 113. The women dressed in camo and took a photo to send to the troops. They also wrote notes of encouragement.
"We are praying for them and thinking about them," said Mary Moore, president of the Junior League. "We want them to come home."
Moore said this year the Junior League wanted to focus more on projects to reach out beyond the local community. She said the women wanted to make a difference in their world. Helping Unit 113 was one way they chose to reach out.
"To the world you may be only one person, but to one person you may be the world," Moore said.
One of the women, Amber Wagnon, a high school teacher at Huntington High School, asked her freshman class of over 100 students if they would write letters to the soldiers as well.
Wagnon said her students, most of whom know someone who is or has served overseas, really wanted to have some deep discussions about the war and soldiers.
"They took it really seriously," Wagnon said. "Some took 20 or 30 minutes to write one letter."
Wagnon said some of the girls pulled out Bibles to write down encouraging verses. One freshman really touched her heart with what she wrote, though.
"She said, 'I've been contemplating your sacrifices and I've realized how selfish I've been,'" Wagnon said.
Unit 113 collects the usual things, like bottles of water and food. But it also gets some more specific requests, including favorite candies, socks and underwear. The soldiers have no washing machines, so they usually burn those things after a few times of wearing them.
"We had one guy who only gets one hot meal a day who requested microwaved foods," Redd said.
Unit 113 meets the first Saturday and the Wednesday before the first Saturday of every month. For more information on how to help, call Rita Redd at (936) 674-7437 or Lucy Burris at (936) 676-9148 or send them an e-mail at ala113@consolidated.net.
Brittony Lund's e-mail address
is blund@coxnews.com.
