Pasco group sends care packages to troops, wounded

By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer

PASCO -- Four-year-old Cash Arteaga's holiday message to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center is a drawing of a Christmas tree with an oversized star on top, and his name boldly printed across the top.

The picture colored with crayon will be included with several thousand holiday cards being sent this week by U.S. Troop Care Package of Pasco.

Chris Arteaga of Kennewick couldn't have been happier as he watched his son and daughter participate in Saturday's card-signing activity held at the Red Lion Hotel in Pasco.

"I've got friends and family in the military. This is teaching my kids to appreciate everything the soldiers are doing for us," said the proud father as he, too, jotted words of encouragement and signed a pile of cards.

A half-dozen tables allowed up to three dozen people to pen personal messages to men and women serving in the military half a world away.

"There will be a couple of thousand cards, easily," said Jan Sass, who founded the care package organization six years ago.

Saturday's card-signing event also had volunteers packing holiday gift boxes that will be sent by Priority Mail to soldiers all around the world.

Each 6-pound box was crammed with more than 50 items, including a roll-up pillow, Christmas stocking with candy, snacks, CDs, a book, calendar, foot-warming pads and personal hygiene items.

A group of volunteers in Benton City makes the stockings, cutting them out of felt and decorating each with a unique holiday design. This year they made 2,000, Sass said.

Everything that goes into the packages is donated, including the $10.35 it takes to mail each box.

"They go all over," said Sass, who noted that the organization provides care packages to wounded U.S. military personnel at nine medical facilities in Kuwait and Iraq throughout the year.

Amie Evers and her two children, Kyle, 9, and Sarah, 6, have been volunteers with U.S. Troop Care Package for several years. The Richland mother said she wants her children to understand that soldiers make sacrifices to help make freedom happen.

"We as Americans tend not to say how much we appreciate what they do so that we can go about our daily lives," she said.

"My dad was in the Navy in Vietnam, but I was too young to understand. Now that I've matured I realize what I have because of their sacrifice. This is the least I can do in return," she said while signing a stack of Christmas cards.

Sass said about 150 care packages will go into the mail this week, along with the thousands of signed cards. She said the organization, which is run by volunteers, is not yet registered as a nonprofit group with the IRS, and is one of less than a dozen across the country.

What began in 2003 with Sass and others handing out 1,000 pillows to members of the Washington National Guard 81st Stryker Brigade as it departed for the Middle East in 2003 has grown into a year-round care package effort.

"Personally I'd like to see (organizations like this) in every state, but there's very few," she said.

Brianna Rieb, 13 was putting final colors on some artwork that would be included in a care package just as Saturday's session was ending.

"I hope they enjoy it and it reminds them of what it would be like to have Christmas with their family at home," she said.

-- John Trumbo: 582-1529; jtrumbo@tricityherald.com

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Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009

Pasco group sends care packages to troops, wounded

By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer