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Cheering Up The Troops

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By SUZANNE M. SCHMIDT

In The Loop

Published: October 18, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - When most people think of Christmas morning they think of opening presents with friends and family. Troops overseas don't have that luxury, which is why Bob Williams of Support Our Troops is working so hard to send 40,000 1-gallon bags full of goodies to the troops.

"I have been doing this for six years and each year it gets bigger," Williams said. "I try to send enough gallon bags to the chaplains so that they can give each person on the base a bag. So the troops, who would not be expecting to get anything on Christmas, will get a bag full of candy, snacks and notes and cards. It makes their day and it is such a tremendous morale boost for them."

Williams is working with local schools and community organizations to get donations for the 1-gallon bags. He said he gets an amazing response from the community every year for this drive, but now, the thing he really needs is postage.

"It will cost about $25,000 to send over the bags," Williams said. "We really need help with the postage. Every month, we average spending about $8,000 sending care packages to the troops overseas, but for the next few months we will need more. I am hoping to get everything in the mail before the end of October so all the troops will have their stuff by Christmas."
Aileen Ortiz, a Spanish teacher at Wiregrass Ranch High School, offered her students extra credit for helping to get donations for the 1-gallon bags. She said she is hoping to donate at least 50 bags.

"I was watching the news when I saw the troops," Ortiz said. "I started thinking, 'What can I do for them?' I was trying to think of ways we can repay these people who are risking their lives for us. I learned about Bob Williams and decided we needed to help."

Ortiz said she thinks the bags will help the soldiers at least a little bit since they will include toiletries, cards and other nice treats.

"It is not a huge number of bags, but I think it will help to make a difference," Ortiz said. "The bags are given with a lot of love and empathy. I think this is important because the students need to learn there are people out there who need help. I would love to open this up to the community and see if we can get more bags."

Students in Pine View Elementary School's Helping Hands, a community service club, also are working hard to get bags ready for the troops. Mary Beth Bowen, a teacher at the school, said she is hoping to get a good amount of bags filled with snacks, toiletries, cards and some bandannas for the troops.

Claire Gray, 9, said she is happy to be able to help the troops.

"I think it feels good to help someone," Gray said. "I don't think the troops will get good stuff out there because they are not with their families. It will be sad for them because Christmas is for family time and they will be so far away. I made three cards that said thank you for fighting for our country. I think it will probably make them really happy because it came from kids."

Rafael Castro, 8, said he wants to help the troops because thinking about what it is like for them overseas makes him sad.

"It is fun to organize and make the bags, but when we talk about what they are going through it makes me sad," Castro said. "There are all these young kids going over and dying for our country and that is sad but it is fun that we get to send them something."

If interested in donating nonliquid and nonperishable toiletry items or snacks contact Bob Williams at (813) 991-9400. If interested in donating money for postage, send a check made out to the Postmaster and send it to P.O. Box 7560, Wesley Chapel FL 33545.

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