thedrifter
01-05-08, 07:14 AM
Beanie Babies from Hanover land in Iraq
By MELISSA NANN BURKE
For The Evening Sun
Article Launched: 01/05/2008 04:05:29 AM EST
When the Beanie Babies arrived, Margaret Staub and the other volunteers at the Hanover Area Council of Churches clothing bank were stumped.
"It was two huge tubs of them - 200 to 300 of them," said Staub, who lives in Mount Pleasant Township.
"These were in very, very good condition. And it was like, what can we do with these?"
Council charities often receive toy donations but not an entire collection of Beanie Babies at once.
The "Baby" mountain included fuzzy horses, dogs, birds, lizards, turtles, even pterodactyls - nearly all wearing heart-shaped "Ty" ear tags and their tummies full of "beans."
"The idea came up (among the volunteers) that with the wars going on overseas, there must be some children somewhere who would like these," Staub said.
A co-worker, Sharon Masimore of Codorus Township, suggested shipping the stuffed menagerie to her 25-year-old son-in-law, U.S. Marine Cpl. B.T. Gillis Jr. in Iraq.
In November and December, Masimore did, packaging and shipping 14 boxes of the plush animals to Gillis and one of his buddies.
Members of Masimore's church, Bethlehem Steltz Reformed Church in Codorus Township, donated more Babies for a total of 300, as well as money to cover the $190 in shipping costs, Masimore said.
The week before Christmas, Masimore got word that the first three or four Beanie Baby boxes had landed. Gillis and others from his unit distributed the toys while on patrol in Fallujah.
"A few children came up, and they handed them out, and next thing they knew they had crowds of children around them," Masimore said. "It's a friendly gesture, and hopefully it makes them a little more welcome over there."
Gillis, who is married to Jill Masimore Gillis, Sharon's daughter, deployed to Iraq a week before the couple's first wedding anniversary in October.
A music teacher, Jill, 27, grew up in Codorus Township but now lives in Vista, Calif., near San Diego.
She doesn't get to talk to her husband that often, but in a recent conversation he told her how much little Iraqi girls especially loved the toys.
The Marines hand them out to individual children on daytime patrols and also put them in care packages of household items that they give to Iraqi families.
Jill said, "You kind of marvel about it how something so trivial - something that used to be talked about all the time in this country but has since faded - that these kids get so much joy out of it."
Ellie
By MELISSA NANN BURKE
For The Evening Sun
Article Launched: 01/05/2008 04:05:29 AM EST
When the Beanie Babies arrived, Margaret Staub and the other volunteers at the Hanover Area Council of Churches clothing bank were stumped.
"It was two huge tubs of them - 200 to 300 of them," said Staub, who lives in Mount Pleasant Township.
"These were in very, very good condition. And it was like, what can we do with these?"
Council charities often receive toy donations but not an entire collection of Beanie Babies at once.
The "Baby" mountain included fuzzy horses, dogs, birds, lizards, turtles, even pterodactyls - nearly all wearing heart-shaped "Ty" ear tags and their tummies full of "beans."
"The idea came up (among the volunteers) that with the wars going on overseas, there must be some children somewhere who would like these," Staub said.
A co-worker, Sharon Masimore of Codorus Township, suggested shipping the stuffed menagerie to her 25-year-old son-in-law, U.S. Marine Cpl. B.T. Gillis Jr. in Iraq.
In November and December, Masimore did, packaging and shipping 14 boxes of the plush animals to Gillis and one of his buddies.
Members of Masimore's church, Bethlehem Steltz Reformed Church in Codorus Township, donated more Babies for a total of 300, as well as money to cover the $190 in shipping costs, Masimore said.
The week before Christmas, Masimore got word that the first three or four Beanie Baby boxes had landed. Gillis and others from his unit distributed the toys while on patrol in Fallujah.
"A few children came up, and they handed them out, and next thing they knew they had crowds of children around them," Masimore said. "It's a friendly gesture, and hopefully it makes them a little more welcome over there."
Gillis, who is married to Jill Masimore Gillis, Sharon's daughter, deployed to Iraq a week before the couple's first wedding anniversary in October.
A music teacher, Jill, 27, grew up in Codorus Township but now lives in Vista, Calif., near San Diego.
She doesn't get to talk to her husband that often, but in a recent conversation he told her how much little Iraqi girls especially loved the toys.
The Marines hand them out to individual children on daytime patrols and also put them in care packages of household items that they give to Iraqi families.
Jill said, "You kind of marvel about it how something so trivial - something that used to be talked about all the time in this country but has since faded - that these kids get so much joy out of it."
Ellie