On Oct. 21, President Obama announced that U.S. troops in Iraq
would be “home for the holidays” but there are still soldiers in
Afghanistan who won’t board a plane bound for the states, so Wendy
Powers of Sebastopol is sending a little holiday cheer their
way.
Powers and a group of about 10 volunteers are arranging for the
delivery of stockings to an Army Battalion of about 400 who were
deployed in April 2011. Serving south of Kandahar, the group has
worked to stabilize the Dand District and will now assist with the
transition to the Afghans in Panjwai.
“We want to let them know we haven’t forgotten about them,” said
Powers, who has made the gesture of sending stockings a holiday
tradition for eight years.
Brimming with necessary items like socks, shampoo, and pocket
tissues, Powers and her helpers plan to stuff the stockings on
Sunday, Nov. 20 in order for the goods to arrive in time for
Christmas.
“It’s not a political statement about whether or not we support the
war, and people from all walks of life and with different opinions
have been able to work together,” said Powers, who is still in need
of donations.
Black crew socks in particular are a high demand item.
“It’s always hard to get enough of them,” said Powers.
Plenty of service groups and businesses in Sebastopol step up year
after year to support the program and it makes a big
difference.
“People really want to help and this is a way for people to
participate,” said Powers.
Small individually wrapped sizes of jerky, pocket tissues, hand
sanitizer, nuts, lotion, lip balm and shave cream are needed to
make the project a success and donations in the form of cash or
goods can be brought to Sebastopol Hardware by Friday, Nov.
18.
Over the past seven years more than 1,850 stockings have been sent
to service men and women by Powers and her gang of volunteers and
the local California National Guard unit out of Santa Rosa, (579th
Engineer Battalion) was sent stockings on two different years for
Christmas.
A handful of Analy graduates and local individuals serving overseas
have also been recipients of stockings and vouch that it made a
huge difference in their level of morale. Michael Dei, Dustin
Green, Sean Sullivan and Henry Burgo Jr. are just a few Analy grads
who received stockings from their high school hometown while
serving in the military.
But the whole program started when Powers’ eldest son, Ben Powers
was serving in Iraq.
“I just wanted to do something for my son and his barracks, and it
snowballed into a life of its own from there,” said Powers.
Since that time, Powers younger son, Anthony Powers joined the
military as well and just recently reentered civilian life in May
after serving for eight years in the Marines.
“When you have a kid in the service, it changes your life
experience,” Powers said. “If I didn’t have two boys who spent
Christmas in Iraq, I probably wouldn’t be doing this.”
