Coffee, baby wipes and toothpaste, shampoo and deodorant are finding their way into Solon Springs classrooms.
Students showing up to class with dental floss, granola bars or Ramen Noodles aren't given a second look.
The items are making their way to school for an attempt by students to reach out to soldiers in harm's way this winter.
The school is participating in a community effort to benefit soldiers serving overseas.
Brown Funeral Home started a communitywide project this week to help area residents send care packages to soldiers.
ADVERTISEMENT
The funeral home is providing its Little Piece of Home boxes to anyone in the community who would like to send items to a soldier serving overseas. Once the boxes are filled; the funeral home ships them to the military for distribution to soldiers.
Every class at Solon Springs is filling a box to send to a soldier. Individual teachers and staff members are filling additional boxes of their own.
"I think everyone is looking for some way to ... contribute and let those far away know they're being thought of," said principal Sue Chandler. "It's just a little something we can do; a little personal touch."
The kids are excited to be part of this project. When Brown Funeral Director Floyd Sickler delivered the boxes to Solon Springs school Monday the students started thinking of items to bring right away, she said.
The program was developed by Brown Funeral Home's parent company Keystone Group, which runs funeral homes across the country. The company is providing the boxes and shipping for the program in all the communities where its affiliates are located, Sickler said.
"It seems like everyone's been deployed around here," he said. "It's got to be nice when you're away from home to get a nice little packet ... we're just trying to take care of our soldiers in a fun way."
Brown Funeral Home received its first set of 40 boxes last weekend, and Solon Springs students and staff are already committed to filling more than 30 of the boxes.
Another effort by the school to reach soldiers involves a writing project. Students are e-mailing soldiers, Chandler said.
ADVERTISEMENT
A second shipment of boxes will arrive soon, said Sickler, whose goal is to be the top box-sending affiliate in the Keystone Group.
The program is in its beginning phase and will run long-term, but people interested in sending a box in time for the holiday season should prepare now. The boxes take about one month to reach troops, Sickler said.
Care packages can be sent to specific soldiers or units if people know the names or addresses of specific troops and include them with their boxes. Otherwise the packages are sent to any unknown soldier, he said.
The anonymous soldier boxes are great because they connect people with strangers in a positive way, he said.
Sickler said he is excited by the project, which gives him an opportunity to care for people through his business.
"This gives me an opportunity to do something for the living; to affect someone who may not be having a very good day on deployment," he said. "It's a really good program. It's a feel good program; you can affect someone else's life in a positive way who is doing something else for us."
Boxes are available by contacting Brown Funeral Home and Cremation Services at (715) 378-2291 or 9005 E. Biller Loop, Solon Springs.
Call Anna Kurth at (715) 395-5019 or e-mail akurth@superiortelegram.com .
