Sending holiday cheer
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
Cherry Hill Sun
12/13/2007

East, Public Library and teens come together to send a little piece of home to troops overseas

The Cherry Hill Public Library’s Teen Department and students at Cherry Hill High School East have come together and adopted three soldiers who are currently overseas defending the country to give them a taste of home this holiday season.

The teens adopted the soldiers through troopcarepackage.com, an organization founded in 2005 by Pennsylvania native Angel Ramsey. The organization connects soldiers with sponsors who create care packages for the men and women fighting overseas who need extra supplies and touches of home to help brighten their spirits during this time of year.

Ramsey has helped connect more than 3,600 troops with sponsors since the organization conception in 2005. Cherry Hill Public Library Teen Librarian Michelle Yeager asked for donations of needed items leading up to Monday, Dec. 3, when several volunteers came to the library to help organize and ready the care packages for shipping.

This is the first time the library has participated in the troop care package program, she said, but hopefully it would be the first of many.

“As time goes on, people begin to put all of the hardships and struggles our soldiers are making for us in the back of their minds,” she said. “This is about helping our soldiers and making sure nobody forgets about them overseas.”

The library’s teen center was overflowing with donated items on Dec. 3, as volunteers packed them away in several cardboard boxes for their adopted soldiers. Drink mixes, knee-high green socks, toothpaste, pens, paper, phone cards, granola bars, toiletries and games were among the most requested items from the soldiers.

Interest in the event was so strong, and so many items were donated to the cause, that a second day to organize care packages was scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 11 from 2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. at Cherry Hill High School East’s Media Center.

A number of volunteers attended the Dec. 3 session. Members of Cherry Hill Girl Scout Troop 30230 pitched in their services to help the soldiers, and also to earn their community service badge.

Lauren Cohan, 10, Morgan McNaughton, 10, Sarah Dilks, 10, Sarah Troost, 10, Elizabeth Beam, 11, and their troop leader Mary Troost busily stuffed the cardboard care packages with goodies and readied them for shipping.

Each of the girls said they volunteered to show the soldiers they cared about them while they were fighting for the freedoms of all Americans.

“Soldiers are people. They’re living people that need our care and our help,” McNaughton said. “It’s just a nice thing to do for them. I’m glad we can help.”

While the care packages were stuffed with necessary items for the adopted soldiers, each package also contained a hand written note from the volunteers thanking the soldier for his or her dedication and sacrifices for the people of America.

Cohan said she hoped the soldiers would find the packages useful and would understand just how much the people of Cherry Hill appreciated them.

“They don’t have many things overseas, and we just hope this helps them out,” she said. “They’re fighting for our lives and our freedom, so it’s really the least we can do to show our appreciation for them.”

While most of the packages are completed, each box costs $8.95 to ship. To donate money for shipping causing, make checks payable to “Friends of the Cherry Hill Library” and please put “Troop Care Package” in the memo.

For more information on the events of the Cherry Hill Public Library Teen Center, please visit the Web site at chplnj.org.

For more information on the troop care package organization, please visit the Web site at troopcarepackage.com.