by Jordan Green, News Editor
Across the country each winter, some of the men and women who fought for our nation spend the holidays alone in veterans’ hospitals.
This Christmas, let’s change that.
As most of you know, I’m a student at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva. Along with several of my best friends, I’m in the President’s Leadership Class, where we perform numerous community service projects. This semester, we’ve been divided up into groups and told to complete a project that could help people in need around the holidays. What’s my group doing? We’re providing care packages to veterans in the Oklahoma City Veterans Administration Hospital – but we need your help.
The three of us on this project are Cody Cosper, Dacoda McDowell-Wahpekeche, and yours truly. This year, we’re hoping to give out at least 50 care packages to veterans at the hospital. We’re college students, so we’re relying on donations for this project. We’d like to ask you and your family and friends to help us out in this endeavor.
For the packages, we need new: crossword-puzzle books, toothbrushes, sticks of deodorant, socks of varying sizes, large and extra-large T-shirts, healthy snacks like trail mix and granola bars, and sugar-free snacks of any kind.
We would also like each donor to write a small card thanking veterans for their service. The cards don’t have to be lengthy, and they shouldn’t be addressed to any particular person. Just write a card, and we’ll put it in a shoebox.
While we are hoping to give out at least 50 packages, we’d love to do more. We’ll focus on giving packages to veterans without families who are able to regularly visit them. We plan to deliver the packages at the end of November, so we’ll need all of the materials by Nov. 9.
We picked this project because we have family in the armed services, and the thought of our family members spending the holidays alone saddened us. We wouldn’t want that for any veteran; we believe our servicemen and women deserve the utmost respect and care for the noble things they’ve done for our country.
I know that finances get tighter around the holidays, but you can’t put a price on showing some of our veterans the love they deserve. Even if you’ve just got a few dollars to spare, a new bag of socks and some toothbrushes can do a lot of good.
I hope you’ll find it in your heart this Christmas to help our veterans. If you’d like to donate any of the items we have mentioned, contact Dacoda via email. His address is: drmcdowell38@rangers.nwosu.edu.
If you live in the Kay County area, you can bring your donations by Green’s Country Clinic, located at 223 East Blackwell Avenue in Blackwell. If you live elsewhere, email Dacoda to set up a time for delivery or pick-up.
This year, I challenge you to do something to make a difference in the lives of veterans here in Oklahoma. I hope you’ll consider donating to our cause.