Vale Club Sends Care Packages Overseas

When Anne McVey begins to plan a soldier care package day at Vale Schoolhouse, she begins combing through the thousands of requests posted to Any Soldier's website.

The site is filled with thousands of requests from squadron representatives for materials the soldiers in their camp need.

Among the requests was a medic who wrote how he sees the soldiers saddened by their inability to send gifts to their kids for Christmas or their birthdays, so he requested the care packages include gifts the soldiers could send back home. Then there are the soldiers who live in rougher conditions than most and ask for basic supplies such as underwear, deodorant and food. And the wife who wrote in to ask for help in buying her husband new boots.

"Each one you read, your heart breaks for them," McVey said. "You try to pick the most deserving, but they're all the most deserving."

On Oct. 6, Vale Club members and friends helped package about 20 large boxes that would end up supplying hundreds of soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The event at Vale Schoolhouse is organized twice a year by the outreach group within the Vale Club.

Ann Marquis, a Vale Club member who helped organize the event, knows from experience how important care packages are for soldiers. Her husband, Richard, served in Vietnam, and she would send packages and voice recordings as often as she could.

"I've done a lot of outreach projects in the past, but this is particularly rewarding," Ann Marquis said.

Richard also volunteered at the Vale Club's packaging event, and reflected on how these types of events didn't happen around the country when he served, as the volatile Vietnam era included protesters who directed their anger about the war toward the soldiers.

The Vale Club has hosted this event, which includes a table for volunteers to create handmade cards, for about seven years. Often, the soldiers send notes of their own, not only thanking them for their kindness but sharing a story or two about themselves.

Sharon Kellett, whose husband is ex-military with the British Air Force, said putting together the biannual event is made easier by the generosity of Vale Club members who donate money for the supplies without much solicitation.

"We don't really try to raise the money as much as they just give it to us," said Kellett, who added many also buy supplies themselves and drop them off at the schoolhouse.

The Vale Club will host from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Vale Schoolhouse at the corner of Fox Mill and Vale roads.