Donation Drive Scheduled to Help Troops Overseas

Sandra Boldt, President of the St. Joe Valley Blue Star Mothers Chapter 6, was in Knox this week organizing an event to be held in September. This will be an event to collect items for the troops deployed overseas.

“We’re going to be holding an event September 11th through the 17th called ‘Knox Supports our Troops’ and it is a donation drive for items to send for Operation Care Package,” said Boldt. “We send care packages to our deployed troops and to veterans that need a little pick-me-up as well. Last year, we did 706 packages and this year, with Knox’s support, we want to be able to do 2,000 packages.”

“On September 11th, we’re going to be having an opening ceremony at the Knox VFW at Noon and that will be the kick-off for our fundraising event,” said Boldt. “Throughout the week we will be having specific places where people can go and drop off donations. It will wrap up on the 17th at the Knox United Methodist Church where people can drive up and drop off their donations. There will also be a blood drive going on from the South Bend Medical Foundation and they are actually being kind enough to offer us a donation of $5.00 for every person that donates blood.”

We asked what items will be sent to the troops who are deployed overseas, and some right here in the United States.

“We send individual snacks, cotton socks, razors… just little bits of home. There are female soldiers as well so sometime those little things are nice to have. We send frisbees, decks of cards, and all sorts of snacks.”

If you have a service man or woman you’d like to be considered for a package, get us the name and address, and we’ll get it to Sandra.

The Blue Star Mothers Chapter takes in St. Joseph, Marshall and Starke Counties.