Following the lead of Eloise Bodine, her daughter Catherine and Mikala Evans, St. Nicholas Catholic Community launched a Care Packages for Troops campaign the weekends of May 29 and June 5.
Evans, a senior at Presentation High School, said she was inspired to start the project by the experiences of her two older brothers, Stephen and Nicholas, serving in the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, respectively, and the veterans in the Western Blind Rehabilitation Center, a division of the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Stephen is rehabilitating there after being injured in Iraq in October.
The Bodines spoke to the church congregation and Evans addressed students at St. Nicholas School to explain the importance of the drive and request participation.
Evans told students that each soldier deserves encouragement from home, a way to stay connected with America.
“Some of them order things online just to hear their names called at mail time,” she said. “Thanks to this small but dedicated group, those serving us in a foreign land will be able to feel a little closer to home.”
Their pleas elicited an overwhelming response from the St. Nicholas community. Parishioners and school families took on the project and filled 355 boxes for the military in the Middle East in time for the Fourth of July. The contents varied from box to box, but recommended items included beef jerky, hand wipes and powdered Gatorade.
The boxes are sent through Any Soldier, an organization founded in August 2003 to help members of the Armed Forces in harm’s way.
The St. Nicholas care packages are being sent to a group stationed in Afghanistan.
