Blue Star mothers gather items for military care packages

LOGANSPORT, Ind. (AP) - Looking to help troops overseas? A local group of military mothers is creating care packages to send to guardsmen in Afghanistan.

Kimberly Clark, president of the Twin Rivers Blue Star Mother Indiana Chapter 11 - women with past, present and future children in the military - said troops who are stationed on "hostile ground" don't have as many essential items or food available for them compared to those on military bases.

That's why she and the rest of the mothers want to help.

"What matters to me is that they get a little touch of home while they're not here," Clark told the Pharos-Tribune (http://bit.ly/1E0dFeB ). "Especially during the holidays, it's the worst part."

"These boys and girls, they're soldiers," she said, "they've been trained to protect us, and they do things that we would never thinking of doing, but to know that when they get a chocolate Easter bunny and they're so thrilled with that, it touches my heart in a way you can't imagine."

Clark said people can donate food, such as macaroni and cheese, crackers, canned meats, and other items like toilet paper and toothpaste. She said in addition to receiving items for themselves, troops also like to hand out toys and candy to children in the countries they serve.

"Our boys mostly want stuff for the kids who are there," Clark said.

The organization plans on sending 150 boxes overseas. Clark said the Blue Mothers chapter was connected with 10 National Guardsmen who were deployed from Lafayette to Afghanistan around Christmastime. They'll each hand out 15 boxes to members of their troop.

But first, the mothers need to collect and purchase all the needed items. Clark said they'll have a donation box at Mike Anderson Auto Group in Logansport, as well as several other businesses and buildings around town.

In order to ship the packages, Clark said they need enough money to pay for postage. Each package costs $15.90 to mail, so the mothers need about $2,400 to do that.

"I think the community is going to come together for the items," Clark said, "we just need to collect and keep collecting as much as we can for the postage."

The organization has received some cash donations, she said, that could be used toward the postage costs, but they may need to spend some of it to gather any remaining items not collected from the public.

Clark, who grew up in a military family, has two sons who served as snipers for the Marine Corps, both with a tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She added that if people locally have family members serving in the military overseas, she'll also send a care package to them if she receives their contact information.

The Blue Star Mothers, and others who want to help, will be packing the boxes in the coming weeks at Logansport's American Legion 60. And Clark said the presents will hopefully be on their way to Afghanistan at the end of March.

"We'll be getting cards and letters from boys we don't even know," she said. "And to know that they're going to know about Logansport, Indiana, I think is very exciting."

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Information from: Pharos-Tribune, http://www.pharostribune.com