The Fayetteville

Police Department was overwhelmed with donations of personal items for

American troops stationed overseas as part of its Operation Shoebox campaign.

Schoolchildren

and adults joined together to donate 56 full-size boxes of supplies including

coveted baby wipes, other personal care items and snacks such as microwave

popcorn. The boxes are chock full weighing roughly 70 pounds each and

are ready to go.

The catch is

now to figure out how to get the boxes to Florida, where they will be

sorted for eventual distribution to troops, said Lt. Beverly Trainor.

"We're

working on that right now," Trainor said, adding that she was overwhelmed

with the amount of support the drive received. "They came and went

so fast with donations that I didn't have time to get everybody's name."

The original

plan was to fill up a box or two in Trainor's office. She quickly found

out she didn't have enough room, so the department made space available

for the donations in its attic.

In addition

to the typical donations of personal items, some also donated money to

help ship the packages, Trainor said.

"We have

such a great community to respond to us like this," she said.

It took the

department's administrative staff five hours last week to get all the

items sorted and boxed. Some things like chocolate had to be pulled out,

obviously because it wouldn't survive the hot temperatures in the Middle

East.

The following

persons and groups played a large part in the collection drive, Trainor

said:

Carl and Carol

Rappold.

Keith Slayton.

Fayette County

High School (specifically Bruce Humphrey's class).

Fayette County

Middle School.

Sara Harp

Minter Elementary School.

The McDonough

Road Baptist Church's Women on Mission.

Atlantic Tape

Company.

Multiflex

Designs LLC.

The Fayette

County Council on Domestic Violence.

Back

to News Home Page |