We had a great ward activity today. Actually, our ward put it on, but we invited all three wards in our building. We wanted to start the year off with a service project, so we decided to make care packages for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. I contacted an organization called Operation Care Packages. It was started by three ladies who had sons and brothers in the military. They are located in Illinois, so everything we collected today will be shipped there on Tuesday.
We collected over 5300 items to send overseas. I'm so excited! We also made 75 Valentine's Cards and 81 Cool Ties (they are ties with a polymer in them - the soldiers soak them in water and tie them around their necks to keep cool in that horrible heat).
It was a really fun day, and I was surprised when about half way through, I thought, "I could do this all day!" It really was pretty easy to put together. The hardest part was getting the other wards to announce it!
If any of you want to read the article they put in the paper, here's the link:
Here's some pictures of our busy bees working:
Some kids in the ward making Valentines:
Our busy sewing bees (yes, that's me there in the front. I can sew a straight line, so I was sort of useful)-
Our collecting bees:
Our sorting bees (we collected crayons and beanie babies for the soldiers to give to children in exchange for information on where IED's are located).
During our cleanup, Matt got bored and made a home in this box. He was quite pleased with it:
Here's our 28 boxes to send. They are absolutely filled to the brim with great stuff for our soldiers:
This was an awesome thing to be a part of. It's amazing how much people can do in just 3 hours!
If anyone wants to learn more about Operation Care Package, here's the link:
