ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Those looking to help make the holidays brighter for military personnel serving overseas will soon have just that opportunity.
Volunteer Kansas will be hosting its annual Presents in a Package event Friday, Nov. 13 at the Farm Credit Bank Building at 245 N. Waco Ave. in Wichita, and it will go from 10 a.m. until around 2 p.m. The purpose of Presents in a Package is to provide care packages to deployed military personnel from Kansas for the holiday season.
“They do so much for us, and we want to do something for them, and this is the least we could do. Many people in the military never receive a single care package during their deployment, so we want to make sure they know people in Kansas care about them and are thinking about them,” coordinator Nola Brown said. “Before that event, however, we have to get donations of items to go in those packages. With those donations, we're looking for non-perishable food items, toiletries and other useful items the troops need, and there's a whole list of items that are acceptable to ship through the U.S. Postal Service on our Web site, volunteerkansas.org. The most important thing right now is that we are trying to solicit the names and addresses of our deployed military, so that we'll have people to send these boxes to. So if anybody has loved ones, family members, friends who are currently deployed from Kansas, if they will send us their addresses and their names to
And the work does not stop there, Brown said.
“Our second call to action is for people to get together and help to solicit donations for the event. There's an approved list of items that we're able to ship, and those are available at volunteerkansas.org, and that includes items like Christmas decorations, garland ornaments, Christmas stockings, things like the soldiers who are away from home at Christmas can decorate and enjoy a reminder of back home. We’ll also accept entertainment donations like crossword puzzles, hacky sacks, playing cards, anything that will fit into a medium-sized flat-rate package. We like to send over some favorite snacks and foods like granola bars, Pop Tarts, dried fruits, microwave popcorn, anything that's not going to be crushable in the mail and will be able to make a trip far away without spoiling. The last item is toiletries and personal hygiene items like baby wipes, body wash, sunblock, feminine hygiene products, things of that nature. We have to always remind people they can't send chocolate or hand sanitizer or anything fragile like glass or batteries. And as far as volunteers to put the boxes together, if you want to get your church involved or your local Cub Scout pack, that would be great. We really encourage people to put together donation drives and have all of those items ready to be delivered the the day of the event or at least by Nov. 9 to any Southwest National Bank branch in Wichita or at the KAKE TV studio at 1500 N. West Street in Wichita. If you're outside of the Wichita area and want to donate, that's great. We don't want to say no to any donations. We also really like to get children involved, so if they want to do handmade Christmas cards, or put together little construction paper, art projects, and things, we'll include those in the boxes to our deployed military as well. We're also accepting monetary donations, and those can be sent to Volunteer Kansas at P.O. Box 781598, Wichita, KS 67278 or submitted electronically through the Volunteer Kansas Facebook page.”
Brown said the main goal of the event is to help send a little bit of Kansas to those deployed overseas.
“We live a pretty comfortable life here in the U.S. and the reason that we do that is because we have people who are uncomfortable every single day because they're serving us,” Brown said. “Most of us are starting to get into that holiday spirit already, so it's not that hard to pick up a couple of extra items. We're talking about items people can pick up at the dollar store, we're not talking about really expensive things. And even though it's just a little bit of Kansas, it's a whole lot of gratitude for what they do, and so having your hands on and being a part of that event is really a great way of being able to show how much you care for those men and women who are serving. And being being a part of that really helps you to be hands-on in that regard. And if you want to sign up to volunteer, visit volunteercance.org, and we've got a big pop-up right in the center of the page they go through. We want to continue what we've been doing, we want to be able to send out more care packages than we ever have. Right now, we have enough postage to send out 400 packages, and we've been really fortunate the last fews years in terms of people making donations, and then of course, Volunteer Kansas always budgets money for this as well, and so without any help, we can we can do 400 boxes. But it does get expensive, and we want to be able to send out as many as are asked for.”
Overall, Brown said, she is hoping for another successful drive.
“One of the most powerful parts of this event is seeing people from across the community working side by side for one purpose, letting our service members know they have not been forgotten,” Brown said. “You don't have to make a huge contribution to make a difference. A donated item, a few dollars towards the postage, a handwritten card, or an hour of volunteer time all help to brighten someone's Christmas when they're overseas.”
