Lions Help Mail ‘Care Packages’ To Iraq

More than 150 “care packages” are on their way to Iraq, the Newtown Lions Club reported this week.

A total of 110 packages addressed to individual soldiers from the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion, based in Danbury, were shipped to Iraq along with 44 large “community” packages to be used by groups of the 411th troops. Some of the community packages included medical supplies for the troops’ medical group, and clothing for distribution to needy Iraqi children and women.

Contributions by merchants, churches, Girl Scouts, individuals, and organizations enabled the Lions Club to contribute checks totaling $1,200 to the 411th Battalion’s Family Support Group for help with the postage expenses to ship the packages to Iraq.

“In addition to the cash, a great number of items were donated for the packages,” explained Lions Club member Wayland Johnson. “Items and cash for the care packages were not only donated by the Newtown Lions but by other organizations and individuals from the Danbury area.”

The packing and shipping took a great deal of time and effort. Mary Ellen Contois, her neighbor, and their daughters from Sandy Hook assisted members of the 411th Family Support Group and members of the 411th Battalion to fill the packages at the Reserve Center on Thursday, March 10. They filled the boxes with snacks, candy, gum, magazines, Girl Scout cookies, books, toiletries, cards, games, and other items.

When the packages were filled, members of the 411th applied address forms and customs forms.  Members of the Newtown Lions Club assisted in the mailing. The post office staff at Hawleyville — Mark Favale, Rich Ruscitto, and Laura Smolen — accepted and processed all of the packages for the 411th in record time and with smiles on their faces, Mr Johnson said.

“Members of the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion and the 411th Family Support Group expressed their appreciation and thanks to every donor who made this care package project successful,” he said. “The response was warm, the gifts generous, and the support genuine. The troops in Iraq appreciate all things the packages represent.”

The effort started last year when Sgt Stacie Warden-Shields of Newtown, a member of the battalion’s Family Support Group, put out a call for holiday donations for the unit’s troops in Iraqi.

The Newtown Lions Club responded to that request, by purchasing more than $500 worth of items that had been requested by the soldiers in Iraq, and Costco contributed $50. Those items were delivered to the Army Reserve Center on Eagle Road in Danbury where members of the Family Support Group assembled the care packages and mailed them in time for the holidays.

Afterward, the Lions Club decided to continue the effort throughout the winter months.

Sgt Shields’ husband, Sgt First Class Bernard Shields, was serving in the Tikrit area of northern Iraq with the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion, where convoys of personal care items frequently are targeted by the militants and do not reach the troops.

“I am the family support group leader for my husband’s unit,” Sgt Shields explained in The Bee when the project started. “I decided that if these items can’t get through by convoy, we would mail them because the mail always goes by air and gets through.”