“Holiday Heroes: Boatsie's Boxes lift troops' spirits - USA Today” |
| Holiday Heroes: Boatsie's Boxes lift troops' spirits - USA Today Posted: 22 Dec 2010 04:04 PM PST By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY This Christmas, thousands of military men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will receive special Christmas stockings filled with candy, socks, DVDs, toiletries and other small presents. At Valentine's Day, they'll receive handmade cards. At Easter, jelly beans. During the summer, they'll get supplies to help them beat the heat — bug repellant, energy drinks, sunscreen, lip moisturizer. And every week, they receive boxes filled with deodorant, body wash, socks, toiletries and other needed items that are often in short supply. All this is thanks to Gail "Boatsie" Van Vranken, 70, and the volunteers for Boatsie's Boxes, a nonprofit group that she operates out of her garage in Wheeling, W.Va. It has been providing supplies to the troops since 2004. (boatsie.com) "Christmas is such a difficult time for them to be away from home," Boatsie says. "They are so thrilled to be getting something from the United States. "They do so much for us. Their sacrifice is absolutely enormous. This is just one small way for us to show our gratitude for all they do to protect our freedom." Boatsie and the volunteers who work with her have been selected to be featured in USA TODAY's Holiday Heroes series — weekly stories about people who go to great lengths to serve others during the holidays and all year long. This is the final story in the series. Boatsie — a nickname she got from her husband, Jim, who served in the Navy — is the mother of four grown children and grandmother of five. She began her volunteer work for the troops in 2004 when her son, Patrick, 40, a senior master sergeant in the Air Force, told her that there was a tremendous shortage of supplies for the troops who were patients in the Baghdad hospital. They needed toiletries, towels and sheets, socks and underclothes. Through donations she was able to fulfill their requests. One thing lead to another and she formed Boatsie's Boxes, a nationally recognized charity. Her group now ships an average of 50 large boxes a week to points of contact in Iraq and Afghanistan. She was honored by former President George W. Bush. Other groups do work similar to hers, she says. Boatsie gets contributions from people, groups and businesses from across the U.S. The generosity is "amazing," she says. The supplies help fill in the gaps on items like toiletries, snacks, DVDs, phone cards and microwave dinners that military personnel have to buy for themselves, she says. Sometimes those kinds of supplies are "wiped out" when a unit comes into a base. In addition to sending weekly boxes of supplies, she and her volunteers have four special projects a year — Hearts for the Troops with Valentine's Day's cards that are made by children; Operation Jelly Bean Express; and Operation Beat the Heat, which gives them supplies for summer. The biggest special project is Operation Christmas Stocking. All of these projects "are sending love from home," she says. This is the seventh Christmas that her group has packed stockings. Volunteers stuffed 10,000 of them. People from around the country sent in another 8,000 stockings for a total of almost 18,000. She shipped them all a few weeks ago. She often gets letters from those who have received this Christmas surprise. "The letters are so heartwarming that it's unbelievable. "One letter was from a young Marine who said this was his first time away from home, and he had missed his second wedding anniversary. He said he had been very blue on Christmas but then he got the Christmas stocking and it made him feel so wonderful." A Catholic, Boatsie says she prays for the troops "every single day of the year." She feels honored to be of some help. "There's something about a man or woman in a uniform that makes me stand a little taller and feel a little prouder. "The heroes in this whole thing are the men and women in the military — not those who in some small way participate in giving them things from home." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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