By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com
NORTH KINGSVILLE — Joann Laird and members of her Hands of Love committee are eager to play Santa Claus to local men and women defending our freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan. Problem is, they don’t know the soldiers’ names.
The Hands of Love project originated with North Kingsville and Kingsville Presbyterian churches, and has gathered several partner churches along the way. The churches collect personal care, nonperishable food items and homemade cookies for America’s deployed soldiers, pack the boxes and pay to ship them direct to the soldiers. They do this several times a year, not just at Christmas.
The project started five years ago, and Laird said response to the boxes of gratitude have been great. However, with war-zone deployment times getting shorter, the group is finding it impossible to keep up with prior recipients’ whereabouts. They’re not getting new names like they once did, and confidentiality issues make it impossible for a civilian effort like theirs to come up with new names.
“Each time (they pack boxes) is like starting over as far as getting names,” she said.
The group will get together Saturday to pack boxes, and Laird needs a fresh list of names and addresses that can be verified through a contact. Call her at 224-0132 if you know someone serving in Iraq or Afghanistan who would like a care box from home.
Laird said the group receives cash donations from individuals and the cluster of area Presbyterian churches to pay the shipping charges. These funds are also used to purchase items that aren’t donated.
“We’re well funded,” Laird said. “We could be doing more than what we’re doing.”
The group has shipped more than 500 boxes in the past five years. She said St. Joseph’s in Jefferson and St. Andrew’s in Sheffield Township, as well as Gageville United Methodist have been partners in the outreach.
Laird said they’ve also used a chaplain contact in the Middle East as a distribution point for boxes of homemade cookies.
“We really don’t want to stop supporting them,” she said. “I think these guys in Afghanistan need our support now more than ever.”
