Stockings for troops was another success
Youngsters from Myers stuffed assisted with the Stockings for Troops program last week.
November 17, 2015
Stockings for Troops kicked off at the Myers Elementary School in mid-October.
This is the fifth year that Bellwood has partnered with the Military Families Ministry (MFM) and the Stockings for Troops service project. Myers Principal Terri Harpster was looking for a project for the younger students to participate in and make their own.
Stockings for Troops is a service project for deployed military men and women who will not have the opportunity to spend the holidays with their families back home.
Items such as Chapstick, toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss, oatmeal packets, hot chocolate packets, playing cards, Ramen noodles, Twizzlers, powdered drink mixes, and other snacks were donated to the school by parents of students, community businesses, and community members.
“At one base last year, stockings were secretly placed at the foot of the bunks of sleeping service men and women,” says Mrs. Harpster. “They awoke Christmas morning to a stocking stuffed and a card made by a student at Myers.”
Myers has participated in Stockings for Troops for five years.
Bellwood-Antis employees contributed by donating money in order to purchase any additional items and cover shipping costs.
Since mid-October, elementary students have been constantly bringing in their items for PTO volunteers to sort out. Items are laid out and organized on tables for the young students to stuff into the stockings, along with a personal Christmas card they have made.
All in all, more than 500 stockings are placed in boxed and shipped to U.S. military bases in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, and Guam.
Stockings for Troops has had another successful year in the Bellwood-Antis community, and students and staff are eager to help U.S. soldiers again next year.
