Buffalo Grove congregation compiles care packages for soldiers

Every month, a devoted group of 60 members of Buffalo Grove's Congregation Beth Am get together to send soldiers overseas a bit of home in a project they call Operation Comfort.

They send the usual staples: food, drink mixes and deodorant. They also send out special requests, such as Silly String, which the soldiers use to find trip wires on bombs.

"I cannot tell you how important is it for them to get packages from home," said Dorothy Shapiro, a Buffalo Grove resident whose son Paul Graf has been in Iraq for six months.

"It's stuff that's familiar; it's stuff that they love. It not only helps to sustain them physically but also emotionally."

Linda Sonin of Buffalo Grove came up with the idea when she heard of Graf and other children and family members of the Buffalo Grove congregation who had been called to duty.

She's gathered names with the help of friends and the Jewish Welfare Board of about 40 soldiers who they send boxes of supplies to every month. The money and supplies all come from donations to Operation Comfort.

"It's an amazing project," said Marianne Shure of Buffalo Grove, who's been with Congregation Beth Am for 24 years and is a past president.

She said members go out of their way to help defer the costs of the program.

"It costs $8.10 to mail each one, and many of the people here take several boxes home and mail them on their own," she said.

At Operation Comfort's last meeting in August, the group also got ready for Rosh Hashana by packing kosher dried apples and honey so that Jewish soldiers were sure to have something to celebrate the New Year.

"Especially for the holidays, we try to put some meaningful reading materials in," Sonin said. "So we try to nourish their tummies and their souls."

The group also sends pillows for injured soldiers that they make themselves with fleece and cotton.

"There are many injured soldiers, and they need comfortable pillows to rest their injured limbs," Sonin said. "What I really love about the pillows is there are 3-year-olds who come to stuff the pillows as well as seniors: It's multi-generations."

Anyone interested in donating or helping with Project Comfort should call Congregation Beth Am at (847) 459-1677 or e-mail info@congregation-betham.org.