It all started with golf balls.
Col. Tim Waters of Saratoga Springs is a member of the Army Reserves who is stationed at Khyber Border Coordination Center in Torkham, Afghanistan. His daughter, Lillian Waters, worked with her mother to send him a bunch of golf balls because him and his friends liked to hit them into the minefields as a form of stress relief.
When Lillian, a senior at Saratoga Springs High School, wrote about this effort as a requirement for her Participation in Government (PIG) Community Service class, her teacher Maureen O’Toole reached out to her. The golf ball effort snowballed into a volunteer project that ended up sending 300 holiday care packages to Colonel Waters and his unit, who have been in Afghanistan since August.
I asked her [Lillian] if she needed any more help with the golf balls and she said ‘no’ but that she was trying to send some care packages over there in time for the holidays. The class has to conduct a community service project as a group, so we discussed organizing something to help with that and the students really seemed to respond, said O’Toole.
The class was working on a tight deadline to have the packages arrive by Christmas. They got the word out right after Thanksgiving break by posting signs and making brochures detailing the types of donations they needed. They set up collection boxes around the school and at local businesses and ended up with far more than they expected.
`There were so many donations and it was just exciting to see the boxes overflowing and the amount of stuff people donated. It made us feel good for doing it,` said Aleta Doty, a classmate. `We originally planned for 265 packages because that’s how many soldiers are stationed there, but when we sorted through everything, we had enough supplies to send out 300 boxes.`
Lillian’s mother, Anita Waters, also asked her neighbors for any help they could offer. Between the efforts, the Waters were able to send to Afghanistan boxes full of an array of goodies ` toiletries, batteries, prepaid calling cards, socks, hand and feet warmers, microwave popcorn and other packaged foods, music, DVDs, candy, books, magazines and cards .
Anita said she made caramel popcorn and a few other homemade items that she was able to package in containers donated by Price Chopper. She said the feedback from neighbors and students was overwhelming.
`I never imagined it would be at such a large scale. The generosity was amazing. People would ring the doorbell and talk to me instead of just leaving things on the porch; thank me for letting them be a part of his,` said Anita. `Sometimes I would stand in the dining room full of this stuff and just look around, almost to tears. It’s heartwarming.`
Lillian said that although it was still hard not having her father around for Christmas, knowing he had something to open that would remind him of home made it a little easier.
`He was really excited about it and he called us the other day to say they received the packages. He said it was really fun to get them and some of the stuff was wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper, so it was fun to open. They didn’t have a real Christmas so this was cool for them,` she said. `It was nice to know that even though he couldn’t be here, he could still have some stuff from home that would make him have a good Christmas, which has always been a big deal in our house.`
O’Toole said that help from the community as a whole was integral in the project’s success. Operation Adopt a Soldier Inc. in Wilton provided about $3,000 in postage to mail the packages and offered its facilities as a packaging site.
Doty said that seeing what the class was able to do in such a short period of time was rewarding and personal.
`It helped that it was friend because it personalized it. We saw that this was something that was important to her and were more than happy to help,` said Doty.
Lillian said she is grateful for all the help and that it was nice to see that people cared about helping her father and other soldiers serving overseas. Both Lillian and her mother are hopeful Waters will make it home in time for her graduation on June 24 (he’s scheduled to return June 20) but said the most important thing is to keep him and other servicemen in their prayers.
`Times are tough and we have to keep our guys and gals and their families at home in our prayers,` Anita said. `I’m lucky because my kids are bigger, but many other families might not have the support system I have.`
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