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| Reaching across the miles for the Marines |
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| Local volunteers will make sure Marines have a happier holiday |
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 | | Photo by Adam Korst | | Trud Finical inspects one of the many bags stuffed full of goodies that will be shipped overseas for Marines serving in Iraq and other locales during the holiday season. |
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By Jillian Beaudry
WEST SALEM -- The holiday spirit was alive in West Salem last week as volunteers who live in the West Valley Housing Authority packed stockings full of goodies for Marines in Iraq.
As holiday music loudly blasted through the large work room, about 25 senior volunteers worked an assembly line stuffing green and red handmade stockings with food and socks for soldiers to receive at Christmas. This was the first packing party at the housing complex, and Mary Harp, a resident aid, led the effort because of a soft spot she has for Marines.
"The Marines have been a major thing for me," Harp said. "I'm a volunteer person and I support our troops all the way."
When she lived in The Dalles in 2004, she said Marines crashed in a mid-air collision and she helped raise money for a memorial. This year, she worked with the Marine Corps Family Foundation Inc. to send the troops Christmas packages.
This is not a one-day project. The work began in October with sewing 157 stockings by hand. About 15 to 20 volunteers from the senior complex used donated fabric to construct the detailed socks in the holiday tradition. The volunteers obtained donated food, personal items and things like socks and handwarmers to prepare for the big packing party on Nov. 13.
With the stockings finally complete, the volunteers lined up around the outside edges of tables forming a square shape and chatted, munched on homemade cake, and hummed along with the songs while they worked in sync with one another.
They pulled their items from huge wholesale-sized boxes under the table. Fruit snacks, granola bars, lip balm, socks, hot chocolate, tea, multiple kinds of candy and, of course, a liberal helping of care were stuffed into plastic bags and the stockings.
"The (volunteers) here have been very supportive of this project," Harp said. "They're looking for projects to do and this has brought the group even more together."
Volunteer Mary Jo Nixon thinks of her 23-year-old grandson, who is being deployed to Iraq this May, as she works.
"I'm hoping next year that one of these stockings will be delivered to him," Nixon said.
Nixon said she knows the troops will enjoy anything they pack for them, but the socks and handwarmers will be needed in the cold weather overseas.
As a grandmother of a soldier, Nixon said she cannot express how much this project means to her and she already wants to do more to help out.
"This is my first time, but it won't be my last," Nixon said.
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