Local VFW sends support overseas

MANATEE COUNTY — Seven-year-old Sam Lawn filed into line behind his mother and brothers, all smiles as they made their way around a series of tables filling U.S. Postal Service boxes with goodies for soldiers overseas.

Jerky? Check.

Deodorant? Check, again.

A DVD movie? Got that, too.

When Sam and his family had finished their work — along with volunteers from VFW Post 12055, their families, members of Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Community’s Saint Clare Women’s Guild and others — they had packed and labeled 40 boxes for soldiers in the Florida National Guard’s 690th Military Police Company, which now is serving in Afghanistan. About 160 soldiers serve in the Brooksville-based unit, including Braden River High School graduate Terrance Gonzales.

“It was great,” Sam said after finishing a box. “It’s going to the soldiers.”

Event organizer and Post 12055 member David Daily said the post last year launched its adopt-a-unit campaign, which falls under the auspices of the national VFW organization’s program. At that time, the post adopted the U.S. Army’s 143rd Sustained Command because several of the unit’s members had served alongside Daily during his 2003 tour in Iraq.

“That got us going,” Daily said, noting the VFW sent two shipments of packages to the 143rd. “It was such a big success (that) we decided we needed to do it every year.

Using funds generated through the distribution of VFW Buddy Poppies, the post purchased about $1,800 of beef jerky, fruit snacks, potato chips, movies, deodorant, drink mixes and other goodies for soldiers.

Ladies in the Saint Clare Women’s Guild also contributed by collecting donations for the project during their Christmas celebration and making a donation toward shipping costs from the group’s funds, member Cathy Damiano said.

“I love it,” Damiano said of the packing event with a grin. “The little things we collected, we take for granted every day. We can send a little of Florida — and lot of beef jerky.”

Post 12055 Commander George Johnston said the post plans to send another shipment of goods to soldiers, likely to another unit, later in the year.

“These guys are sacrificing,” Johnston said. “They’re serving their country, and they are sacrificing their home life, their time and putting themselves at risk. We know because we’ve been there. The VFW is comprised only of war veterans. We know how lonely it is, and how, especially the Vietnam veterans, it feels like to be forgotten, to not be appreciated.

“We feel like it’s our duty to let these guys know we have their backs, thank them for their duty and let them know we support them,” he said.

The packages packed on Saturday will be mailed Jan. 28, Daily said.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].