Gifts for the troops

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — “Holiday time is just such a hard time for them to be away. They’re missing their families, their families are missing them, so we like to make up these boxes as a moral booster at a time when soldiers overseas really need their moral boosted,” said Stephanie Johnson of Monticello, who has a son and a daughter serving in the military. Johnson helped found Operation Support Our Troops Sullivan County in 2003. Since then, the group has sent over 20 tons of care packages to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther’s office in Monticello on December 14, Johnson was joined by many area residents who dropped off gifts for the troops.

Barbara Strong, a teacher at Benjamin Cosor Elementary School in Fallsburg, said some of the teachers at the school asked students who planned to give a gift to the teacher to donate gifts for the soldiers this year instead, and the result was 14 boxes of gifts, which were loaded into Gunther’s office.

Among the most popular items with the troops are travel-sized baby wipes, no-rinse soaps, bug repellent, eye drops, instant soups, beef jerky and DVDs.

Gunther said she encourages anyone who knows of someone serving overseas to contact her office so a package can be delivered to that person. Gunther’s email address is gunther@assembly.state.ny.us and her phone number is 845/794-5807.