Photo By 1st Lt. Anna Doo | Members of the Socorro High School Interact service club are boxing up more than a...... read more read more
SOCORRO, N.M. – Scores of care packages from the communities of Socorro and Roswell are being stuffed to the brim and shipped to the Soldiers of New Mexico National Guard’s Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation Regiment, currently deployed to Kuwait. Two civic groups have adopted the medical evacuation pilots, crew chiefs and flight medics.
The Interact club of Socorro, a service club for youth ages 14-18, collected donations from their fellow high school students, teachers and the community at large with the guidance and support of the parent Rotary organization. A handful of members gathered at the home of Penny Lommen, an executive member of Socorro’s chapter of Rotary International to divvy up the items and include handwritten notes to each Soldier. Seventeen boxes were packaged by Camilla Aitbayev, Asher Guengerich, Matthew Frail and Ivy Stover. An additional 38 boxes from the Socorro County Federated Republican Women and four boxes from the Rotary club itself were prepared for mailing.
Lommen, one of the sponsors for Socorro’s Interact club, said the service group conducts two projects each year – one local and one international. They were having a hard time identifying an international project. Lommen attended a meeting where New Mexico National Guard’s Adjutant General, Brig. Gen. Andrew Salas, spoke of the deployed, homesick Soldiers. She thought adopting these local Soldiers was a great project for the Interact students.
Aitbayev, a recent graduate of Socorro High School, said the project to collect items garnered a heartwarming response. She said some of the teachers offered extra credit to students, but that for the most part the community simply wanted to send their well wishes to the Soldiers.
Frail echoed Aitbayev’s comments and said, “We sent out the word and teachers would tell their students if they donate stuff for this you can get a little bit of extra credit in our class or just feel good about yourself; know that you’re helping someone.”
In a span of less than two weeks, Guengerich said, all of the items were donated. Aitbayev estimated that three in every 100 students brought in sunscreen, lip balm, cans of green chile, hair ties, coffee, water bottles, sunflower seeds and much more. The group was even given a large box of tortillas which, given the perishable nature of the food, Lommen took to the Socorro homeless shelter.
She said, “The day I took them over there it was lunchtime and they were trying to figure out what they were going to feed them for lunch, and I said ‘Look, I’ve got an entire box of tortillas.’ The cook just went ballistic, saying, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is going to make our lunch today!’ ”
When asked what items the students thought the Soldiers would be missing the most, they immediately said lip balm, sunscreen and playing cards. Aitbayev thought a Rubik’s Cube would be a good way to while away the hours and Guengerich offered up current events magazines to stay informed of, as he put it, “keeping up with the Kardashians,” invoking the title of the popular television show.
The students said they learned a few things while conducting this project. First was learning to give back and help others. Second, they identified how powerful a tool incentive can be. Lommen said she enjoyed watching how well the students all worked together, motivated their fellow teens, and that she couldn’t be more proud of the young adults.
The excited chatter of the next generation filled Lommen’s kitchen while they dispersed the items into the boxes. They made sure each package was addressed to an individual Soldier, included a handwritten note, and evenly distributed the chips, candies and sundries. It was evident on their faces and in their demeanor that each student was participating for much more than extra credit.
About 160 miles east of Socorro, Nicole Vargas of Roswell Adopt a Soldier was packaging up more than 50 pounds of products for the Soldiers. She has been collecting items and sending care packages since 2001 and estimates she’s sent more than 30,000 pounds total. Vargas said the reason she has continued to adopt deployed Soldiers is because it is therapeutic for her.
Vargas suffered her own traumatic experience, leaving her with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and a heart full of rage. A neighbor attempted to rape her and force her into his vehicle, but she fought off her attacker. Because of her strength, he was convicted of a lesser charge of false restraint, instead of attempted rape and kidnapping. In addition to that experience, Vargas lost a friend to the war when he was killed on deployment. Remembering both of those poignant events in her life, she said that decorating the individual care packages is very emotional for her.
“But bad [things] happen to us all,” Vargas advised. “You have to get up, dust yourself off and move on. Hence came the Roswell Adopt a Soldier program.”
The correlation between her wisdom of dusting oneself off and the Army Air Ambulance casualty evacuation unit’s call sign of “DUSTOFF’ is not lost on Vargas. As she prepared to gather items for the MEDEVAC professionals of Charlie Company, she said the community of Roswell once again wholeheartedly rose to the challenge. They named this current round of care packages Operation Third Meal because the Soldiers in Kuwait are receiving two hot meals a day. The hope is for the items in the boxes to fill in for the third meal as a little taste of home in addition to the Meal, Ready-to-Eat from a brown plastic bag that currently suffices for dinner.
In order to fill the packages with delicious items, Vargas set up donation boxes throughout the community. She returned to pick up overflowing containers at the local schools, Chavez County JOY Center, Farmer’s Insurance, and a large donation of jerky from Ranchland All Natural, the company where she works. Vargas said Ranchland All Natural produces grass fed lamb and beef jerkies and jumped at the opportunity to send their food to the Soldiers.
The care packages from Socorro and Roswell will travel more than 7,000 miles to the NMNG troops stationed in Kuwait. Due to the selfless outpouring of community support, each Soldier will receive at least one box filled with reminders of home and comfort items not easily obtained while deployed. The National Guard constantly trains and prepares to be able to support their local community at home and abroad. This state of readiness would not be possible without the reciprocal support from the citizens of the towns and cities in which Guard members reside.
| Date Taken: | 06.10.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 06.16.2015 17:57 |
| Story ID: | 166877 |
| Location: | SOCORRO, NM, US |
| Hometown: | ROSWELL, NM, US |
| Hometown: | SANTA FE, NM, US |
| Hometown: | SOCORRO, NM, US |
| Web Views: | 111 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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