Putting care into packages for soldiers

It was cramped quarters that was unexpected — and nobody minded.

Bagging up donated nonperishable food and hygiene items, cramming as much as possible into flat-rate boxes from the U.S. Postal Service and sending them to troops serving overseas has become a regular ritual for Tri-Counties Blue Star Moms since the chapter formed last year.

But for the latest round of boxing and shipping Wednesday night, things were a little crowded, not only due to the extra packing help by students from two local high schools, but the dozens of boxes of supplies the students collected and brought in.

“To be honest, I expected three or four cases of stuff. ... I was overwhelmed,” said Lori Danby, president of the Blue Star Moms, whose son is a Marine currently between tours to Iraq.

Combine the amount of items with a couple tables for sorting, and there wasn’t much room for people to move around in the section of garage in Danby’s Yuba City home.

The sheer amount of items like fruit bars, instant noodles, beer jerky and toothpaste was a surprise not only to Danby, but to the Sutter High School’s Future Business Leaders of America, who gathered most of it.

“Yeah, we’ll be here for the evening,” Anne-Marie Leduc, the club’s adviser, said with a laugh as she went about sorting items from the boxes that FBLA had filled with donated items.

FBLA first heard about the project from Sutter High Principal Ryan Robison, who was contacted by a Blue Star Mom, said sophomore Lauren Weatherly, the club’s vice president for community service.

“This is something we decided we wanted to do,” she said.

When FBLA first stared its collection effort two weeks ago at Franklin Elementary School, there wasn’t much coming in at first. By the time collection at Franklin and Sutter High wrapped up, however, there were around 30 boxes of items, enough to, as Leduc put it, “take up the whole backside” of the high school’s largest classroom.

“That was nice, to know that people would get involved,” Weatherly said.

“Unless you had to carry it all,” FBLA Co-President Hailey Taylor, a senior, joked.

Additional items came in from the Future Farmers of America chapter at River Valley High School.

“We were collecting all through December and Christmas break,” said senior Rebecca Wilkin, FFA president.

But collecting is just part of the effort. The items are then sorted, packed into an $8.95 flat-rate-postage mailing box, and sent out to soldiers, sailors and airmen from the Mid-Valley.

And that’s what Wednesday night was for, to get those boxes put together. Danby said Blue Star Moms had about 300 of the flat-rate boxes, and expected to fill them all with the items the students collected.

Along with the supplies, going into the boxes were letters from Blue Star Moms describing the collection effort, plus cards and letters of support made by students.

“We’ve never had so much help before from kids,” said Blue Star Moms member Missy Sanchez.

Being able to get out in the community and “helping our soldiers that are fighting and protecting our lives” was what made the collection project appealing, Wilkin said.

The success of the collecting project for the Sutter FBLA students didn’t hurt, either.

“It’s good to see how much people care,” Taylor said.

“I think it’s pretty amazing we got all this,” Weatherly said.

Contact Appeal reporter Robert LaHue at 749-4713 or rlahue@appealdemocrat.com