Local effort underway to send packages, encouragement
Troops need to hear from home
Wanda English Burnett - Editor

Whether you can send needed items such as toothpaste, batteries, soap etc. or a handwritten greeting, your help is needed to help boost the morale of troops serving our country in foreign lands.

State Representative Cleo Duncan, along with a host of volunteers, is organizing an effort to send packages and messages of hope to those serving. The effort is dubbed, "Project We Care."

Already enacted in the Greensburg area, over 50 packages have been sent and now the representative is asking Ripley County residents to join in.

People are asked to collect items such as pre-paid phone cards, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, dental floss, non-aerosol deodorant, gum, toilet paper, ear swabs, sunblock, body lotion and more (see complete list in boxed area).

Family and friends of all Ripley County service men and women in
active duty are asked to send names and addresses so they can receive packages. Information can be submitted to Ripley Publishing Co., PO Box 158, Versailles, IN 47042; email to: publication@ripleynews.com or wburnett@ripleynews.com or fax info to 812-689-6508. Persons may also call Duncan's office at 800-382-9841, Ext. 9620.

"We are asking that ministers ask their parishioners to drop a line of encouragement," noted Duncan. She suggested that plain cards be put in offering plates on Sunday so people can write a note of encouragement. Those should be collected and turned in at drop-off sites across the county.
She noted that personal notes are very important at this time when the morale of the military personnel is low. "We need to let them know that we care and support them," she said.

Drop-off sites for items collected in southern Ripley County include the Ripley Publishing Company, Versailles; The Ripley County Highway Garage, Osgood; The Sunman Town Hall; and the Milan VFW.

Collection begins this week, Thursday, June 10, and will continue through Thursday, June 17. The items will then be assembled at the County Highway Garage on Friday, June 18. Volunteers are needed to help assemble packages and anyone interested in doing so can do by showing up at the garage about 11:00 a.m.

Those in the Batesville area may take items to the Herald Tribune, The Memorial Building, and WRBI.

Another way that help is needed is for businesses and organizations to donate tax-deductible cash contributions for postage. Money will also be used to purchase items not donated.

Duncan says she knows people will come through for those serving our country because she describes the people of Ripley County as "very generous, kind and caring."