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Since the start of the Iraq War thousands of people have sent care packages to U.S. troops to offer the soldiers comfort and remind them of those who are thinking of them back home. These programs like Care for Troops, Military Moms and Operation Shoebox are often organized by the U.S. military or military families, but occasionally private citizens decide to organize themselves and send kits filled with everything from snacks to underwear.
In early 2006, Chelsea Rich, then a senior at Madison High School in Madison, N.J., decided to start her own care package campaign, with the help of fellow students, local businesses, and even her dad, Andrew Rich, owner of Genesys Graphics, a distributorship in Madison. Chelsea was able send more than 500 packages to soldiers stationed in Iraq. Many of the troops sent letters of thanks in return.
“I never saw her heart swell as when those thank you letters kept coming in the mail,” says Andrew Rich.
Prior to the care package campaign, Chelsea oversaw her fair share of altruistic causes as president of her high school’s Key Club—the oldest and largest service program for high school students in the country—and as a member of other organizations.
“We raised money for a tsunami fund once,” Chelsea says. The Madison Tsunami Fund organized a benefit concert where town residents were entertained by three college choruses. They raised more than $500 at that event. Chelsea also had wristbands produced that were sold and raised $17,000. In addition, she put jugs around town at the retail shops which raised $15,000, and she did a direct mail campaign that raised $12,000. The mailers were printed by Genesys Graphics. In total, the Madison Tsunami Fund brought in nearly $120,000. The money helped build five hospitals in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and aided in recovery of those affected by the devastating tsunami of December 2004 that killed hundreds of thousands of people in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Maldives.
But this time, Chelsea thought the Key Club members should do something for U.S. troops. She was able to secure a list of soldiers’ names for the mail drive through a family friend of the Riches whose son was stationed in Iraq. Starting in the winter, Chelsea and about 50 other Key Club kids started collecting donations for the packages. “We got phone cards from the post office. Some people donated vitamins, popcorn, razor blades, socks and DVDs,” she says. They solicited more donations later from town residents during the Rose City Festival in Madison.
Chelsea says they also had sixth, seventh and eighth grade students at a nearby middle school write letters to the troops to be enclosed in each care package that told the soldiers how proud they were of them and praised the soldiers for doing their duty for their country.
When the care packages were completed “the post office donated the shipping boxes and we handled the shipping,” says Andrew Rich.
Within one month of sending “the tons and tons of packages,” they started to receive thank you letters from the troops in Iraq. “It was the middle school kids who got letters back from the servicemen saying how much they appreciated everything,” Chelsea says.
Andrew Rich estimates they received about 300 letters.
Chelsea, who is now in her first year at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where she majors in business finance, says she would probably do a similar project again, though through another organization. “Right now I’m in the Circle K club, which is the older version of the Key Club, so I could do it here,” she says. “But I’m a freshman and still trying to figure out my way through college. So it may be a little while before I start something like that again,” she says with a laugh.
—LaShell Stratton