There are many different ways to support our troops. Many choose to send care packages. This can be done through larger operations, or through organizing a hands-on grass roots organization in your community.

Perhaps the best way to explain how to have ongoing community Troop Care Package night is to use the program at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church in Deerfield, IL as an example.

Regularly, once a month a call to help is emailed to more than 40 people who live in and around the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, IL.

The email announces the time and date of the upcomingTroop Care Package Night. Typically the email will read very much as the most recent email reads.

“Tuesday, August 18th St. Gregory’s will host the next Troop Care Package Event. Join us for an evening of fun as we pack care packages and write letters of support for our troops.Items needed for packages.

The items needed are small personal items and snacks such as the ones listed here.

Socks, Protein bars/Cliff bars/Granola Bars Hygiene products: Baby Wipes, Liquid hand sanitizer, razors Food in foil pouches OR pop-top cans: tuna, ready-to-eat rice, Chef-Boy-R-Dee spaghetti, and ravioli Instant drink mixes (packages with single serving size: Kool-aid, Crystal Lite, Gatorade, coffee, and tea) Snacks: peanuts, gum, pretzels, chips, cookies, dried fruit Fun items: paperback books, cards, DVD’s, games, puzzle books.

The email then ends with the announced time of the upcoming St. Gregory's Troop Care Package evening.

Setup begins at 5 p.m. and package assembly will start at 7 p.m. If you would like to contribute, checks can be written to St. Gregory’s Church with Troop Support
in the memo line.

Please let us know if you have an address to add to our list of recipients.

Thank you so much for your continued support.

We hope to see you August 18th.

Cissy & Nuala”

Cissy& Nuala are are Cissy Singleton and Nuala Kurokawa, the two enterprising women who started this monthly event in April of 2005.. Through their efforts they gained the support of St. Gregory's Episcopal church, Deerfiedl IL of which they are both members.

St Gregory's supplies the logistical base where the contents for the troop packages are stored and packed. Some of the regular volunteers are members of St. Gregorys.

As demonstrated above the troop care package effort launched by Cissy and Nuala is much more than a Church sponsored activity. Many of the regular volunteers come from in and around the Village of Deerfield. They are moms and dads, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles of those who are serving their country. In that respect they are similar to Cissy who has a nephew in the special forces and Nuala who has a son, a sergeant in the army who has served two tours of duty in Iraq. Others who help are veterans, or persons who wish to somehow show support for our troops.

What happens each month is truly remarkable. Around 5 PM of the date the Troop care packages are to be packed a core group arrives at St. Gregory's Church.. They congregate In a room known as Founders hall. There they begin to place tables in an L shape spanning the length and the width of the hall. Next they organize the items that are to be packed into postal shipping boxes, the shipping boxes, labels, etc.

Later that same evening If you the reader were to go to St. Gregory’s Church in Deerfield, IL and you are invited to stop in around 7 o'clock on the evening of Tuesday August 18^th you will see the two lines of tables forming a right angle spanning the length and width of the room..

The tables are laden with books, cans of Chef Boy R Dee Spaghetti, packets of Cyrstal Lite, Koolaid, and Gatorade. Packages of dried fruit, boxes of white athletic socks, tooth brushes and toothpaste, batteries for electronic devices, and more are stacked on the tables.

From 20 to 50 individuals, each armed with an empty postal flat rate shipping box walks along the tables and packs his or her box with the cornucopia of goods that have been gathered for our troops in Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Then, after each participant fills a box s/he sits down and writes a short letter to the recipient of the recently packed box. Once the letter is finished and the shipping form is filled out the volunteer takes the box to a table. There other volunteers make sure the shipping form is correctly filled out, tape the box shut and stack it with a growing wall of boxes.

The cycle is continued until there are either no more boxes to fill or little or no more goods left and the tables are empty.

More than 250 boxes are packed at each troop care package event. Each package contains not only personal items and snacks, but that letter that has been written by the volunteer who packed the box. These letter mean a lot to those who receive the boxes.

Cissy and Nuala, the founders and organizers of this monthly event estimate more than 5000 boxes have been shipped since they organized the first Troop Care Event at St. Gregory’s more than x months ago.

According to both Cissy and Nuala the continuing effort is worth it. They have received numerous thank you notes and letters from officers and enlisted personnel that reflect how important it is for us who are sitting in the safety and comfort of our homes to remember those who are far away in a strange and hostile land.

This Troop Care Package effort is an example of what can be done by one or two dedicated individuals can do to lead a community in reaching out.

Cissy and Nuala encourage any individual, or business, or corporation in the area who wants to help by either donating goods, money or showing up and pitching in to do so. If you don't live in the area and want to pitch in, just google "support our troops," and you will find listings of many organizations.

For more information or if you want to send a check to help defray postage and other costs for St. Gregory's Troop Support efforts please mail :

Cissy and Nuala Troop Care Package St Gregory's Church 815 Wilmot Road Deerfield, IL 60015.

Make sure you write in the memo space of the check "Support our troops".