About 15 people gathered at the Eagles Aerie 2587 Sunday morning to box up what sponsors consider a remarkably generous amount of donations for care packages to be sent to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Three and a half hours later, after the boxing was over, the group, including Eagles members and people from the community, had 38 boxes packed with everything from batteries to beef jerky.
“We were really impressed and overwhelmed with the amount of support we got from the Emporia community,” said Ralph Tebbetts, who was in charge of the project. “It went really well.”
The group piled like items on a string of three eight-foot tables placed end-to-end, and went to work.
“Then we just went down the line and started stuffing boxes,” Tebbetts said.
Two of the boxes are being held in Emporia to present to a soldier who will be home on leave for Christmas. The remaining 36 boxes, weighing a total of 702 pounds, were mailed out Monday at the Emporia Post Office.
The care-package drive had raised $1,570 to help with shipping, or to purchase additional goods to sent to the troops if there were funds remaining. The cost of mailing was $1,023.40, so the committee will get back to work until the funds are used.
“That leaves us about $500 left over to go buy some more stuff and send some more boxes,” Tebbetts explained.