Friends pitch in with care package for Lake Co. Marine
Traditionally, family and friends of those serving in the military overseas parcel up sundries, comfort items, snacks and magazines to show they are thinking about their loved ones.
When the friends and family of Bruce Johnson decided to put together a care package for him, they knew they had to go big, because Johnson intended to spread the love around.
Nine boxes weighing 40 pounds each were dispatched to Afghanistan for Johnson, the chief executive officer of the substance abuse treatment agency Nicasa who is serving a yearlong deployment with the Marine Corps.
But along with the bags of trail mix, cartons of powdered drink mix and automotive magazines popular with those in the field, Johnson's boxes contain supplies for his hosts on the other side of the world.
Lake County Circuit Judge Margaret Mullen recalls a conversation she had with Johnson's wife, Dee Dee, at a social function not long after Johnson shipped out.
"I asked her what types of things we could send him," Mullen said. "Among the first things she mentioned were pen and pencil sets and composition notebooks, and I thought she was kidding."
Dee Dee Johnson explained the writing supplies are important currency in her husband's work with a civil action team seeking to bond with the Afghan people.
"Pen and pencil sets are kind of revered items over there and Bruce likes to have them on hand to give to the local officials he interacts with," she said. "It gives him a chance to build a rapport with the people we are trying to win over to our side."
When the packages arrived recently at his duty station in Afghanistan, Dee Dee Johnson said, her husband "completely overwhelmed" by all the people who got involved.
"Bruce said it made him feel proud to know there are so many people who support not just what he is doing, but what all the men and women in the service are trying to accomplish over there," she said.
Mullen was among those who got involved by reaching out within the Lake County courthouse to collect items for Johnson, who is well liked through his work at Nicasa and prior service as chief of the former Round Lake Park/Hainesville police department.
One of the first people to step up was Ken LaRue, an assistant state's attorney who recently returned from duty as a Naval intelligence officer in Iraq.
LaRue said he understood the significance of Johnson's wish list.
"One of the things the people in both countries we are fighting in want most to come out of this is an increase in literacy among the populations," LaRue said. "The notebooks are for the children; the adults want their children to be able to read and write and they really appreciate anything we do to make that an attainable goal."
LaRue said he had no problem getting people to contribute Johnson's cause, and similar results were recorded by Jeannie Anderson, a co-worker of Johnson's at Nicasa.
"The response was overwhelming," Anderson said. "I mentioned to a few people that we were doing this, and stuff started getting stacked up on my desk the next day."
If the Marines were actively seeking a diplomat in muddy boots for the task in Afghanistan, Mullen said, Chief Warrant Officer Bruce Johnson was the man they were looking for all along.
"I am not surprised that Bruce has an assignment in which he interacts with the Afghan people," Mullen said. "He has an amazing ability to connect with people on any level and a genuine gift for helping people solve their problems."
LaRue said the ability to connect with people is key in a place where sometimes the most that can be accomplished in a given day is to make a bad situation just a little bit better.
"It is all about building goodwill; showing people that we understand what they are up against and want to help," he said. "Sometimes you can make that point with a $2 pen and pencil set from Kmart a lot more clearly than you can with anything else."