Local Kids Send Gifts To Troops

DAYTON -In February 2005, a young Dayton man was sitting in an airport in Kuwait passing the time while waiting to fly home on a two-week break. He was in his second tour of duty in Iraq.

That's when he overheard two young soldiers behind him talking about the coolest thing that had happened to them at Christmas time. Some tiny town in Washington state had made and filled Christmas stockings and mailed them to soldiers in Iraq, they said.

There were newspapers from the town, goodies, handmade stockings and more.

Jerry Carlson couldn't resist. He turned around and introduced himself to the two soldiers and told them that the town they were talking about was his hometown of Dayton. The two soldiers asked him to please bring their thanks back home to the community.

"That little something from home really means a lot over there when you have absolutely nothing," said Jerry's father, Dayton resident Steve Carlson, who remembers military life overseas from his days in the Vietnam War. "It really picks the spirits up. Morale really increases."

It's responses like these that continue to motivate the valley stocking squad, a network of volunteers from Waitsburg, Dayton, Walla Walla and surrounding communities.

This month the growing legion of volunteers is preparing another round of holidays treats for 100 soldiers overseas. School children from Waitsburg are creating artwork. Sixth graders this week have been stamp­ing

Christmas cards and writing notes; 7th and 8th graders are writing Christ­mas letters and making "classy" cards and enve­lopes. And Debbie Bailey of Dayton has her special education students from Walla Walla's Pioneer Middle School coloring snowman artwork to go inside special treats called "Snowman Soup," which includes hot cocoa mix, marshmallows, Hershey's Kisses and a candy cane assembled by a local Girl Scouts troop.

"They need to feel what we're feeling here (at Christmas): love from friends and family," 8th grader Nick Lindsey said.

A military officer work­ing at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, the recipient of stockings in 2008, volunteered with her teenage daughter to bake cookies and vacuum seal them to send to the 100 soldiers.

And to add an interna­tional flair to the project, a warm-hearted woman from the very northern end of the country of Nor­way

asked to be part of the stocking-sewing effort. She put together some of the stockings at her home in Norway and then sent them back to be filled with goodies and mailed off to Iraq.

Finally, a local teen is making fudge for each stocking, valley dental businesses have donat­ed such things as tooth brushes, tooth paste, den­tal floss and candy, and yet another local business has offered to pay for the postage costs to send the boxes to the soldiers for the holidays. Dayton resident Aileen Warren will make sure the 100 stockings are stuffed with all the handmade goodies and gifts along with a carton of dried egg­nog mix in the toe and a copy of the Times for the soldiers to enjoy. She and other volunteers will box and mail out the stockings in time to reach soldiers overseas. "What an honor to be able to bring so much Christmas cheer to those who put their lives on the line to protect our free­doms every day," Warren said. Warren and her family began the stockings for soldiers project several years ago. Back in 2003, Brian Richter, son of Carl and Susan Richter of Dayton, was part of the initial mili­tary effort to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Since as a teen Brian had worked for the War­rens on their family farm, Aileen Warren wanted to do something nice for him over the holidays, know­ing

he couldn't be with family.

She stitched 100 Christ­mas stockings to send to him so he could share the treats with friends. Others in the Dayton community caught wind of the project and said that if it happened again, they would like to participate.

But the biggest chal­lenge facing the future of the project was finances. The group needed enough money to buy supplies and pay for postage to send the stockings. They kept their eyes open for, "the perfect fundraiser," Warren said. Then in the summer of 2004, Warren with her husband, Glenn, and daughter, Katie, were vis­iting Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and saw yellow magnetic ribbons stuck to cars everywhere. The rib­bons were meant to honor those serving active duty in the military. "It took a little doing, but we tracked down the source of the ribbons, and when we got home, we or­dered

the ribbons and sold them in the Walla Walla, Dayton, Milton-Free­water, Pomeroy neigh­borhoods," Warren said. "Nobody here had seen anything like them, so we knew we had a unique op­portunity." Over the next three months, the Touchet Val­ley group sold 5,000 mag­netic ribbons and raised $25,000.

"The community sup­port and response to our effort was unbelievable," Warren said.

Near the end of the three months, Walmart began selling the yellow ribbons at two for $5, "so we knew our chance was nearing its end," she said. Thanks to all the folks who purchased those rib­bons, Warren and her troop of volunteers were able to send 1,500 "filled and fun" stockings to various military members from Walla Walla, Dayton and Pomeroy in 2004 and 2005. They had so many they ended up with some boxes that didn't have a name to send them to (postal regulations no lon­ger

allow boxes to be sent to "Any Military Mem­ber"), so Warren's hus­band loaded up 17 boxes of 20 stockings each and drove over to Camp Mur­ray, where they distributed them to military personnel in Iraq. The entire 4-H program in Waitsburg was involved with the stocking stitch­ing. Many community members asked to help stitch the stockings, too. It's quite an undertaking to make 1,500 stockings, Warren said. In the boxes sent, the group included a dispos­able camera, and a hand­ful of those soldiers took photos and returned the cameras to Dayton. "It was very touching to see the delighted ex­pressions on the faces of those soldiers in receiving a stocking from our com­munity," Warren said. "It has been the honor of a lifetime to be involved with the several stocking efforts coming from our community over the years. This year, once again, stockings will be heading to Iraq with lots of hugs, love and warm wishes from Dayton, Waitsburg, Walla Walla, Maryland and Norway."

To get involved or findout more about these stockings for soldiers, contact Aileen Warren via her email address at wheatranchwife@colum­biainet. com.