Twp. Fire Department Ships Care Packages to Overseas Troops

Over twenty volunteers met at the Chatham Township River Road Fire Station Wednesday to assemble care packages for US soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.

Each year, the fire department chooses a unit to send care packages to, and then spend several months collecting the money to purchase supplies and ship the boxes overseas, said  James Sara, the president of the township's Volunteer Fire Department.

Township firefighter John Cotter said he reached out to an aquaintance of his, Maj. Gen. John Nicholson, who is stationed in Afghanistan, to find a unit to donate the care packages to. "He put us in touch with another general, and then a captain, and then so on down the line," Cotter said.

The department eventually decided to donate their care packages to the 10th Mountain Division, which is currently stationed near Kandahar. Sgt. Maj. Roy Rocco told Cotter what kinds of materials to purchase for the soldiers.

"We were going to go with chocolate bars originally. It's the height of summer over there, so he said no," Cotter said. "We ended up going with trail mix instead."

Other materials included in the care packages were baby wipes, – "Everyone knows, there's about a thousand uses for baby wipes," Cotter said – pens, writing pads, envelopes, toothpaste, gum, tea and toilet paper. Several boxes with general goods, including books and magazines, were also packaged up.

"We just showed up at Costco with our pick-up trucks and bought a bunch of stuff," Cotter said.

The United States Post Office donated 250 boxes for the effort, and Federal Express agreed to ship the boxes to Afghanistan free of charge.

"That was really the biggest thing," Cotter said. "That could have cost us several thousand dollars."

Sara said that the money for this project was raised through private donations and corporate matches.