Hugs for Soldiers like taste of home

We’re about to enter the giving season. Now I know, we all give throughout the year. But be honest, as the holidays approach don’t we find ourselves more aware of those in need, and just a little more appreciative of all we have?

Here in Gwinnett we’re fortunate to have several homegrown charities with stellar reputations. One worth a special mention is Hugs for Soldiers, a non-profit, volunteer organization designed to provide military personnel deployed overseas with a few comforts from home in the form of care packages, cards or personal letters of encouragement.

Founded in 2003 by Angie Doerlich as a ministry for her church, Duluth First United Methodist, Hugs for Soldiers has grown from encouraging 31 soldiers deployed from Fort Benning, to well over a thousand service men and women from all over the country.

Soldiers can be “adopted” by families, individuals, schools or church groups to receive supportive mail during their tour of duty. By extension, Hugs for Soldiers lends a hand to military spouses and children here through their Thanksgiving and Christmas food drives.

The organization’s quiet growth garnered national recognition when Scholastic Parent magazine named Hugs for Soldiers one of the top 10 organizations in the United States to offer support for our troops.

Visit their website and you can find out how to send a movie night kit, participate in the Valentine card drive or learn how to “adopt” a specific soldier for one-on-one communication.

I can tell you it makes a difference. My next door neighbor, James, my “second son,” as he likes to call himself, joined the Marines right out of high school.

James and I traded messages while he was deployed to Iraq. In one of our exchanges, he asked me if I remembered the Dunk-a-Roos he and my kids enjoyed as snacks back in the day.

That little memory sent my daughter and I on a hunt through four different stores to find those childhood snacks. We packed them, along with a few other treats and mailed them to James in Iraq.

James has been home awhile now, but he still raves about receiving that little package filled with memories of home. I truly regret I didn’t send him a package weekly.

Our postal service is unable to provide discounted postage for young wives planning to send mail to our soldiers. According to Angie Doerlich, “just because our soldiers might have a supportive family back home, doesn’t mean they can afford to mail things to them.”

One Army wife wrote to Hugs of Soldiers just this week asking how she could have her husband nominated to receive “Hugs.” She noted, “out of 25 soldiers in his platoon, sadly less than 25 percent receive mail from home.”

Please visit www.hugsforsoldiers.org.