Donations have been slow as the mall’s Kidz Klub prepares for an event Saturday to prepare packages for troops, not just for the holidays but quarterly.
Children in the Roanoke Valley, as well as the public, are being invited to help overseas troops for the upcoming holidays. Before that, the children will tour the Dallas Jones Roanoke Valley Veterans Center, which is located at the mall.
“I think it brings it home,” Heaton said in a recent interview. “It’s real easy to forget we have troops deployed.”
Heaton said the simplest things for the troops are needed. “Socks, soap, shampoo. It lets them know people care about them, that we want them to come home and be safe.”
Heaton said she is committed to making this a quarterly, if not monthly event.
Beverly Smith knows what these care packages can do for a soldier or sailor — her son went to the Middle East with the Navy in 2008. He came home last Christmas and won’t be back until 2011.
“I believe they look forward to any kind of package,” Smith said recently.
While Smith packs enough for her son and his friends, she knows many soldiers probably receive nothing.
Some of the things she sends include Chapstick, T-shirts and bandannas, to cover the face during harsh sandstorms.
They also enjoy snacks like Skittles. “Treats they don’t get every day,” she said.
Even packets of iced tea, like Crystal Light, are welcomed, she said. “These are things you can pick up at the dollar store.”
Then there are AT&T phone cards, playing cards and travel size board games. “They’re happy to just get anything.”
Collection bins are placed at the mall and a variety of items are needed, from bottled water and mist machines to Visine and sunscreen. A complete list of items for deployed troops can be obtained at the veterans center.
Members of the club will be responsible for sending notes to the troop and the mall is trying to collect a list of names of local soldiers who are overseas. Heaton hopes the correspondence with the soldiers will lead to a bond between the troops and the children, who are preschool aged to 10-years-old. “It’s our goal at the mall to make the mall a family centered place. We hope the children can start a connection with them.”
The Kidz Klub meets from 11 a.m. to noon every second Saturday of the month.
For more information call the mall at 252-537-9040.
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