Caring for the troops

Clara Sissel’s two-car garage is laid out more like an assembly line of sorts. A filing cabinet full of snacks and beef jerky stands next to shelves of shampoo and lotion bottles.

To the side are the empty boxes, already addressed to a soldier currently in Iraq. Sissel says she’ll place some books in the box and then start stuffing it with the goodies from the shelves and the filing cabinet on her workspace, then she fills the cracks with the candy from the bowl to her left. And on top of all the goodies, she places a hand-written letter to the recipient.

"I just really try to put in happy things, nothing sad. Anything to cheer them up," Sissel said of her letters.

Sissel has already sent more than 470 of these boxes since she started sending them — and she keeps a list of names of everyone getting one of her packages. Sissel said Friday was the seventh anniversary of the day she started the project.

"I started in 2002. I was praying and told the Lord I knew I could do something," she said.

And something turned into a task that typically takes 20 hours and two days a week, including the shopping, packing and shipping.

Though she packs everything herself—"that way I can do it like I like it," she joked — Sissel said she has help from Crescent Park Baptist Church, the VFW and several other groups who give her the postage and money for the snacks and sundries needed to make each of the 17-pound boxes. Some people as far as Dallas even mail her lists of soldiers’ names and APOs, or military post office ZIP Code locators, for her to mail to.

Last week she was working on a list of 30 Marines and was hoping to get the boxes out in time for Halloween. The Halloween boxes include a few plastic spider rings for the occasion, along with blank Christmas cards for them to fill out and return to their families later on.

Sissel said she often hears back from soldiers who have gotten a box. Typically they write something along the lines of, "thank you, you are awesome, we thank you so much."

"You’re the one that feels so humbled being able to do it," Sissel said. "It’s a great morale booster."

VFW Post 4372 has pitched in on the postage for the boxes Sissel shipped out, she said. Post Quartermaster Danny Henry said he’s been aware of her work and hoped more people could follow her lead.

"We have more local boys and girls in the service from Ector County that would like to get something from the local folks," Henry said. "I just wish more organizations would get together and sponsor somebody like her."

HOW TO HELP

People interested in helping with the project can call Clara Sissel at 362-1089 or send cash or lists of names of soldiers overseas and their APOs to: Clara Sissel, 1424 Brittany Lane, Odessa TX 79761.

CHRISTMAS FOR OUR TROOPS

MIDLAND The West Texas Troop Salute is aiming to send off 1,500 supply boxes to soldiers overseas as part of its sixth annual Christmas for OUR Troops.

Scott Davis, who’s collecting the names and APOs for Christmas for OUR Troops, said the organization sent 1,228 boxes last year to Afghanistan filled with everything from snacks to toiletries to weapon cleaning tool known as bore snakes. This year, Davis said the group hopes do even more, and between West Texas and southeast New Mexico he believed the goal was very attainable.

"That’s all this is about, letting those men and women in awful places in this world fighting for our behalf know the people back home truly care, and West Texas and southeast New Mexico truly care," Davis said.

Davis said the group is looking to update their list of soldiers, since each year the ones they mail to often return home before the next Christmas. In addition to lists, they’re also accepting cash and supplies. Those interested in helping can visit westtexastroopsalute.com and click on the "Donate" tab.