Cherry Hill Sun

Tag: military

  • Operation’s boxes of hugs go on – for now

    Albert J. Countryman Jr./The Sun
    Cherokee High School peer leaders Brett Gable, Brett Chiesa, Kelly Walters, Samantha Pharis, De’Anna Findley, Karime Sargado, Trent Waraksa and Morgan Shank serve breakfast on March 8 sponsored by the Marlton Rotary Club, whose members are behind the students.

    Young soldiers serving in the Middle East can be scared during warfare and a bit homesick.

    But for the past 13 years, care packages from home have brightened their days, especially after a tough battle. Operation Yellow Ribbon (OYR) of South Jersey volunteers have packed up more than 20,000 packages – weighing in at 700,000 pounds – to send a piece of home to a distant military base.

    While the operation may have to shut down this year, there was a lot of energy during the Marlton Rotary Club pancake breakfast on March 8 at Wiley Mission on Main Street.

    “What a great turnout,” said club president Chuck Childers, as he watched people enjoy eggs, pancakes and breakfast meats.

    “This is our seventh year partnering with Operation Yellow Ribbon,” Childers noted. “The proceeds from this event will not only support our local community – such as scholarships for Cherokee High School students through Rotary – but also benefit and support our troops defending our freedom overseas.”

    Serving breakfast were Cherokee High Peer Leaders, including Brett Gable, Brett Chiesa, Kelly Walters, Samantha Pharis, De’Anna Findley, Karime Sargado, Trent Waraksa and Morgan Shank.

    “We are very proud of the Peer Leaders group,” Childers boasted. “They do a great job.”

    Childers also thanked the Wiley Mission for hosting the breakfast and the many businesses and organizations that were sponsors, as well as the work of Marci Wolfe, Peter Bertheaud, Eileen Childers and Anna Marie Basanas, who put together a silent auction.

    Operation Yellow Ribbon founder David Silver was thrilled by how many people showed up, and greatly appreciated the help of the Rotary Club.

    “The club has been a blessing,” he said, “and has supported us for nearly a decade.”

    Silver said OYR – which consists of 15 “selfless volunteers” – sends care packages to troops in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.

    “It is a real morale booster for an 18- or 19-year-old to get a package from home,” he explained. “We call it hugs in a box.”

    Popular items for the soldiers include Tastykakes, snacks, Girl Scout cookies, new socks and hygiene products. OYR also organizes welcome-home celebrations when troops return home from an overseas deployment.

    “It is very fulfilling,” acknowledged Silver, who has a storage container full of thank-you letters from soldiers all over a wall. But the care packages may stop soon.

    “It is with a heavy heart, but yet one filled with utter gratitude, that the all-volunteer … nonprofit Operation Yellow Ribbon will be winding down its ‘morale-boosting care package business’ operations over the months to come,” Silver lamented.

    “The heavy heart is because we know that our brave U.S. service members deployed to the Middle East and fighting the war on terror still need love and support from home,” he added, “but we are no longer able to keep up with the demand for care packages, coupled with the constant rising price of everything, including purchasing care-package items, USPS postage costs, rent and insurance.”

    For now, the organization will continue as a nonprofit just in case the miracle blessing of a very large financial donation happens.

    “Volunteers from Operation Yellow Ribbon will continue to surprise and welcome home our returning local South Jersey service members, along with the Warriors Watch Riders and other patriotic motorcycle groups, local towns and first responders,” Silver emphasized.

    “Nothing will be changing in partnering to coordinate and facilitate welcome-home celebrations.”

    To help keep the care-package program going, visit https://www.operationyellowribbon.org/make-a-financial-donation/.

  • Making healing art for heroes’ hearts

    Special to The Sun
    The results of a Healing Art for a Hero’s Heart card-making program at the township library.

    Cherry Hill resident Amy Bash brought the Healing Art for a Hero’s Heart card-making program earlier this month to the township library, where about 100 holiday cards were created for deployed members of the military.

    Participants learned two watercolor techniques and were supplied materials to make their own cards or use a template. Though Bash has held the event in Voorhees at that township’s art center and in neighboring towns, the library program was the first time card making came to Cherry Hill. Bash felt it was a good fit to partner with the library, especially since it has a Veteran’s Wall of Fame.

    Bash said the library event had the largest number of registered guests she’s seen so far compared with other events that she’s held. The cards will reach their recipients around the holiday season. Healing Art for a Hero’s Heart was originally started by Bash in 2019.

    “I originated it because my husband was going to deploy to Kuwait from December 2018 to 2020,” she recalled. “He was deployed during the pandemic and it really hit home that none of these service men and women were going to be home for the holidays.”

    In the last five years, Bash estimates more than 1,000 letters have been made and sent. As in the past, Bash worked with Beth Masiado of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who created embroidered stars from flags that were damaged, tattered, torn or mildewed and no longer fit to be flown. She washed, dried and cut stars from the flag, then sent them with a message of gratitude and encouragement.

    Special to The Sun
    An example of a star cut from unusable flags and included with cards that are mailed to deployed service members.

    Bash includes a star and the message with the mailed letters.

    “My husband has said, no matter whether it’s from a child, or whether it’s from a veteran or a spouse or a neighbor, it’s just nice to know that they’re thought of,” she noted. ” … It brings a sense of nostalgia, a connection to their civilian life, because when they’re deployed, whether it’s 10 months or longer, or a bit shorter, their daily life has completely changed.”