High School Volunteer Council Sends Care Packages to the Troops

According to Jerry Kelley “I am proud to be a part of the HSVC and most thankful that collectively we can make a difference, by bringing support and cheer to the brave men and women who selflessly serve and protect our nation when asked.  More importantly, the student leaders of the HSVC learned that compassion, cooperation and generosity are but a few qualities of leadership that transcend school rivalries.”

Thanks to a very generous sponsorship from First Niagara, Valley United Way’s High School Volunteer Council kicked off their “18” year at the Sports Center in Shelton on November 16th, 2013. (A delay due to early winter storms)

On May 20th, 2013 members of the High School Volunteer Council met at the Sports Center to celebrate their year with a special project. Collectively, at the beginning of the school year, the advisors and student leaders of the HVSC suggested and voted to accomplish two tasks related to Veterans in addition to tasks related to promoting student community leadership.

Both activities involved sending support to our service men and women stationed overseas which personally meant a lot to Shelton High School Advisor as a proud veteran (US Navy).  For the first activity, student leaders and their advisors wrote letters of support to the troops for the holidays in December 2012.  These letters were sent to an Army unit in Afghanistan which was to return to the States in May of this year (approximately).  For security reasons, we are not allowed to know deployment or redeployment timeframes however I did receive a late night phone call in January (2013) from the Army representative in Afghanistan who requested that I  thank the HSVC personally from the service men in his unit for the well-received cheer we sent. 

The second and final HSVC group effort centered around collecting needed items and creating “care kits” to send to troops stationed overseas.  47 care kits from the “Help for Heroes” campaign were created and 46 were sent to a Marine unit deep inside Afghanistan, the remaining personalized care kit was sent to the brother of a faculty member at Shelton High School serving in the Navy.

These care kits contained items that most of us in the United States would find inconsequential but to the men and women serving in the field, these items are highly needed and greatly appreciated.  Items included basic health and beauty products: toothbrush/toothpaste, floss, soap, shampoo, deodorant, medicated body powder, pain relievers, lip balm, sunscreen, etc.; recreational items: movies, magazines, paperback books, deck of cards, hacky sacks, etc., one lucky service man or woman will have a new kindle that was donated by Seymour High; food items: granola and protein bars, breakfast bars, ramen noodles, cocoa, tea and coffee mixes, jerky, peanuts, hard candies, etc.; personal items: pencils, pens, batteries, notebooks, note cards, shoelaces, zip lock type bags, etc.  Additionally, thank you letters were also placed in as many care kits as we had letters – many of which came from elementary students and the student leaders themselves while creating the care kits. 

Most recently Valley United Way received a call from Afghanistan from SSG Ryan Anderson. He called to say thank you on behalf of his men to the HSVC for the letters and care packages they had sent.