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thedrifter
04-19-07, 04:26 PM
U.S. Marine's mom plans Q-ville care package drive
By DAVID O'CONNOR
Lancaster New Era

Published: Apr 19, 2007 12:47 PM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa - Faith Aukamp knows several "Southern-End boys" who will soon be changing their surroundings from the quiet farmland of the Quarryville area to something far different.

Iraq.

One of them is her son Joe Rineer, who turns 19 on Friday and is soon being deployed with the U.S. Marines.

And Aukamp realized "there are just so many things these guys going over there don't have" when they're at their forward bases in the war zone.

Things like undershirts and socks, phone calling cards and single-use disposable cameras.

Not to mention letters of support from the folks back home.

So Aukamp, who's a Realtor with Beiler-Campbell Real Estate in Quarryville, is holding an all-day "Care Package Drive" on Saturday at Ferguson & Hassler grocery store, at Townsedge Shopping Center. The center, at 112 TownsEdge Drive, Quarryville, is along Route 222 at the entrance to town when coming from Lancaster.

She hopes to collect "as much as we can" in the effort, which is to run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The collected items are then to be shipped to Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan through the MarineParents.com project, a Missouri-based nonprofit organization.

With her son and the others half a world away, "They need to know that back here, we know they're doing it (serving) for a reason ... if they weren't over there, then the war could be over here."

Aukamp, who's 41 and a Quarryville native and current resident, is known to many for her years as a waitress at the Quarryville Family Restaurant.

When Saturday's collection is complete, and Aukamp will be stationed at the entrance to the supermarket, she will continue to collect for the service personnel.

Anyone interested can drop off items at the Beiler-Campbell office, 229 W. Fourth St., Quarryville.

For more information on the effort or subsequent ones, call Aukamp at 341-8160.

She said local businesses and others have been "great" about making donations: "I get a lot of calls from people, who say things like, 'Wow, we've been wanting to help, but we just didn't know how.' "

Other items that are welcomed include quart- and gallon-sized Ziploc bags, current magazines, paperbacks, DVDs, CDs, AA and AAA batteries and portable CD players.

The Marine parents' organization says on its Web page it ships more than 700 care packages each month to Marines stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and "our database grows daily as Marines send us names of comrades who are not receiving mail or care packages," it adds.

According to some parents from Virginia, their son in Iraq "said it is like Christmas when he gets a package over there."

CONTACT US: doconnor@LNPnews.com or 481-6033

Ellie