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thedrifter
09-04-08, 11:01 AM
Last modified on 9/3/2008 at 12:35 am
Troops appreciate power of pen (pal)

By LINDA HALSTEAD-ACHARYA
Of The Gazette Staff
COLUMBUS - Never underestimate the power of a letter.

That's what motivates one Columbus woman as she seeks pen pals for deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"There are 900 Marines being deployed to Iraq this month," said Diane O'Neil, a state leader with the Reagan Round Up. "And that's just one of the groups."

The Reagan Round Up is a national program that links pen pals in the U.S. with troops overseas. The organization, born in January 2006, is the brainchild of Dawn Gilsdorf, a Navy mom from San Diego who came up with the idea when her son was set to deploy on the maiden voyage of the USS Reagan.

Her hope was to coordinate her online friends to write to members of her son's division. The concept took off and now includes 2,000 to 2,400 soldiers from all branches of the service.

"When someone else joins the Reagan Round Up, that is one more military person not so alone," she said.

O'Neil first got wind of the Reagan Round Up through Eons

.com, an online community for adults. She decided to make it her mission to add more names to the list.

"It gives them something to pick up when the mail call comes in," she said of the soldiers. "It gives them something to remind them of home, just to show that people care."

And in the words of one soldier, the effort seems to have hit its target.

"Thanks for taking the time to do what you did," the soldier wrote to his pen pal. "Today was not the best of days and your letter helped more than you will ever know."

Anyone who signs up through the Reagan Round Up is expected to write to his or her soldier pen pal at least twice a week. But the message can be as simple as a postcard. In fact, O'Neil said, people enjoying a vacation back home can stock up on post cards and by sending them off one by one take their pen pals on a "fake-cation."

Occasional care packages are well-received but strictly voluntary. Troops can't stop by the local convenience store for a bag of chips or candy bar, sometimes for up to two years, Gilsdorf said.

"They count on you and I to get them things that we take for granted," Gilsdorf said.

Items most frequently requested include beef jerky, trail mix, nuts, snacks in small bags, power bars, Gatorade, books, magazines, toilet paper and sand scarves. Travel-size baby wipes are also in demand.

"When they're out in the field, water is almost nonexistent," O'Neil said. "So the wipes are a big deal."

Besides letters and care packages, the Reagan Round Up also promotes special group projects. A canned-food drive was organized with the goal of providing soldiers with the ingredients for very basic recipes.

"The recipes are for simple things they can make from a can or box, something that resembles foods that they can have at home," O'Neil said.

There are also groups that organize baby baskets for military moms with new infants. The more crafty members of the Reagan Round Up crochet blankets, sew up sand scarves and knit socks.

"Whatever people can do," O'Neil said. "Anybody with a talent or extra yarn at home, anything is appreciated. It's something they're getting that's saying 'thank you.' "

Businesses can also participate. Discounts on fabrics or donations of items for care packages are always welcome.

The Reagan Round Up initiates all pen pal exchanges using the regular United States postal service because so many soldiers lack regular access to e-mail. When joining, participants cannot specify the gender of their pen pals.

The Reagan Round Up provides a simple service that seems to have made a difference in the lives of soldiers.

"To come back from a long mission and realize that you have mail always brings a smile to your face," one soldier wrote in an open letter to the Reagan Round Up. "It doesn't matter who it may be from or even what it might say, just to know that it is from someone that we are protecting, honors us."

Ellie