Groups ask for help sending holiday stockings to soldiers

By Diana Cox

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 | midnight

When the war in Iraq started in 2003, Lizz Phillips wanted to do something to help the soldiers.

She didn't know or how until she saw an ad for Soldiers' Angels, a volunteer-led, nonprofit organization. Phillips is now the Nevada state coordinator for the group.

Phillips, along with Chere Pederson, president of Blue Star Mothers of Southern Nevada, and members of both groups are working to brighten the holiday season for deployed soldiers.

The goal is to send at least 2,000 holiday stockings filled with donated items to Nevada-based soldiers who are in Iraq and Afghanistan. So far, the groups have collected enough items to fill about 200 stockings.

Items needed range from toothpaste to magazines to chewing gum. "Getting something in the mail is different than getting a phone call," Phillips said.

The group is also asking people to write holiday cards that will be sent with the stockings. "Having a complete stranger say thank you is totally different from family saying thank you," Phillips said.

Monetary donations are also needed to cover the cost of postage. It costs about $10 to ship one stocking to Iraq or Afghanistan. Last year, the cost of shipping the stockings was $4,600.

Blue Star Mothers, which supports 42 local units of deployed men and women, wants to be able to send a stocking to each person in each unit. The boxes of stockings will be addressed to one high-ranking person in a unit and will then be distributed to each soldier.

Cosmetic and lotion samples are a big pick-me-up for women who are deployed, Phillips said. "They are out there in the dirt and dust all day. Their skin suffers. A little bit of fancy lotion can make them feel so much better," she said.

Items also need to be travel size. The soldiers cannot carry full-size bottles of shampoo and mouthwash out into the field. Travel-size items can easily be put into the pockets of their combat fatigues, Pederson said.

Donations can be dropped off between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7 Water St., Suite C, in Henderson until Dec. 6.

Volunteers are needed to help sort and categorize items and stuff stockings between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturdays at the Water Street location. The first shipment of stockings will be sent Nov. 22.

Diana Cox can be reached at 990-8183 or [email protected].