Students send Christmas to troops
BY SANDRA WALSH, The Beaufort Gazette
Published Saturday, November 4, 2006

Sudoku puzzle books, gum, granola bars, homemade fudge, peanut brittle and hand-held video games are a few of the items people think Marines deployed to Iraq might like for Christmas.

On Thursday, Beaufort Middle School students and Dataw Island residents met at the community center on Dataw to fill more than 70 boxes with goodies for deployed Marines in Al Anbar Province of Iraq.

Bo Payne -- mother of 24-year-old Bill Payne, a combat engineer who was deployed to Iraq in August with a Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort squadron -- raised more than $1,700 for the effort from friends and Dataw residents.

Payne also received donations that included hand warmers and baby wipes for the Marines living in the sandy environment that fluctuates in temperature between 40 and

80 degrees.

The packages, which will cost roughly $8 each in postage to send, will be divided up and mailed to Payne's son; Barbara and Chuck Alderman's daughter, Karen Alderman, an administration officer deployed to Iraq in September; and Roy and Midge Moore's son, Woody Moore, a C-130 pilot on his third mission in Iraq.

Each of the Marines then will hand the goods over to their respective sergeants, who will give the packages to Marines who don't receive gifts from their families during the holidays.

Also, Beaufort Middle School students handmade 200 Christmas cards that will be attached to many packages. They thank Marines for protecting their freedom.

"It's fulfilling a patriotic duty to support our troops," Chuck Alderman said. "As a parent, it makes me feel good to see not only support for my children but for all of the other men and women who serve there."

Roy Moore, a former sailor who served in the Navy for most of the 1960s, said the day also served to connect people with Marines and the U.S. war in Iraq.

"After Vietnam, things changed; much less people served in the military," Moore said. "People don't have firsthand experience anymore, they haven't been through it. ... But everyone has ideas; either they criticize when something bad happens, or they treat military like gods from another planet -- it's a problem."

But on a basic level, despite not having any immediate family in the war, 13-year-old Beaufort Middle School student Harley Martin said he understands his part in making the care packages.

"I think they'd be very happy that we did all this for them," Harley said. "There are a lot of family members in the military, a lot of people overseas; we just wanted to help our country."

Contact Sandra Walsh at 986-5538 or swalsh@beaufortgazette.com. To comment on this story, please go to beaufortgazette.com.

Ellie