Posted on 11/27/2007 2:11:41 PM PST by mdittmar
SKOWHEGAN -- Carol Lowell was preparing to stuff gifts into a home-stitched Christmas stocking for Marines in Iraq Monday, when her computer "mooed."
Only e-mails from her son, 21-year-old Marine Cpl. Craig A. Lowell, are programmed to make that noise, so she dropped everything to answer his message. They joked back and forth for about 10 minutes while he quizzed her about the special Christmas project she is working on.
She told him it was a secret and he'd have to wait for Christmas.
The "secret" is one that has blossomed since the energetic Lowell and her friends from the 1/8 Family Network of parents of Marines began working on it about six weeks ago.
What began as a plan by Lowell and her friend, Patricia Fickett of New Hampshire, to stuff Christmas stockings for 180 men in Bravo company -- 1st Battalion 8th Marine Regiment -- has mushroomed to 1,100.
The 1/8 Family Network, an organization of parents of Marines, picked up the idea and ran with it, she said.
"We sent out letters to family and friends looking for donations and the whole thing exploded on us," Carol Lowell said. "The family and friends took this list we had generated and we got some wonderful responses from schools, organizations, businesses and volunteers. It's been lots of work, but it's been lots of fun."
Hundreds of people from as far away as Michigan and Florida and as close as New Jersey, New York and Maine have been sending items such hot cocoa, gum, soup packets, Chapstick, toothbrushes, nuts, socks, hand warmers and small toys for the stockings. Dozens have helped sew the stockings. Businesses have offered sales breaks. Organizations have offered to pay postage.
"It's just growing," Lowell said of a Christmas stocking project that now includes Alpha, Bravo and Charlie companies, the weapons company and the headquarters and supply, which are non-combat Marines.
"Mothers have jumped in; volunteers have jumped in. There has been a flurry of people from all over the country getting those donations to us," Lowell said. "It's so encouraging. I have sometimes wondered if we still have support out there for the troops. It's really warmed our hearts to see that there is."
Members of the Kennebec Valley Marine Corps League in Augusta, Detachment 599, offered to donate postage money.
"It's nice to see a group of parents like this that are bonding to do the same thing together, upholding one another during this time," said Lee Longe, a member of the Augusta detachment.
Friends such as David and Rhonda Bolduc, who own Christmas Tree Acres in Norridgewock, agreed to save their leftover balsam needles for Lowell. She has stitched them into potpourri sachets "so the boys can have the smell of Christmas."
David Bolduc remembers Craig Lowell by the nickname "Dumpy," a great friend to his two sons. He joked about repaying a debt to Carol Lowell, the football mom "who fed them for years."
Helping every step of the way is fellow worker Fickett from New Hampshire. A Masonic group in her state offered to cover shipping costs as well, Lowell said.
Fickett's mother stitched 80 of the stockings, then friends and volunteers took over as the project grew, she said.
Bob Gauvin, head of the digital graphic arts department at Skowhegan Vocational Center, and Dylan Daigle, a former student who grew up with Craig, created 300 of the printed sections for handcrafted Christmas keepsake ornaments.
Another business called twoguyssmokeshop.com offered a huge discount to Lowell for "dog tag cigars, so they can have a celebratory smoke.
"I found little remote control cars, two for a dollar at a local business, so all the guys are going to have a toy to play with -- or give to the kids over there," said Lowell. "We also are sending over soccer balls. My son said local kids having their own soccer ball is like gold."
Students in public schools are addressing and writing messages in all the Christmas cards so each Marine will have a card for Christmas.
Craig's girlfriend, Megan Sevey, at the University of New England, came home last weekend to accompany Carol Lowell to New Hampshire for a "packing party" at Fickett's home. Craig's father, Charles and brothers Adam and Brett, also keep in touch.
Lowell said her son's battalion is doing a seven-month deployment, sometimes working 16-hour days. They have no dining halls and no running water.
"They're taking showers with bottled water right now," she said.
Mothers of Marines in each company are established as coordinators, just as Lowell is for Bravo Company, to make sure everything in a special project gets shipped to the unit.
"It's not all about cookies and stuff. We can do the fun projects, but we always have to respect the fact that our children are at war. What we do is extras."
Large-scale giving isn't new to the 1/8 Family Network, which also spearheaded a cookie bake that sent 1,066 dozen cookies to Marines for the U.S. Marine Corps birthday Nov. 10.
On a shelf by Lowell's computer is a small, green Gumby doll, which she said is the unofficial mascot for Marine parents everywhere: "We call ourselves Semper Gumby -- 'always flexible'," she said. "It's a reminder that our children belong to the Marine Corps, not us. We serve at the pleasure of the Marine Corps."
A Million Thanks
A Soldier's Wish List
Adopt-a-Chaplain
Adopt a Platoon
Adopt A Soldier Ministries
American Care Packages
The American Legion
American Legion Auxiliary
Angels 'n Camouflage, Inc.
Any Soldier
Armed Forces Foundation
Armor 4 Troops
Boatsie's Boxes
Blue Star Mothers of America
Caring For Troops
Central Illinois Proud Families of Marines
Dallas Is Love
Defenders of Freedom
Deployed Soldiers Family Foundation
Flags Across the Nation
The Freedom Fund
Freedom Is Not Free
Give 2 The Troops
Have a Heart/Adopt a Soldier
Hearts Across the Miles
Helping Our Troops
Hero Hugs
Home of the Brave Quilts
Homefront Hugs USA
The Hugs Project
Keystone Soldiers
Ladies Auxiliary to the VFW
Landstuhl Hospital Care Project
Letters From Home
Local Heroes
Marine Corps Family Foundation
Marine Corps Family Support Community
Military Ministry
Wonderful
I still would like to go to Iraq even if only once, to spend some time with ours, as well as the British, Canadians, Australians, and Polish thanking them for their service.
Who says this is an unpopular war? Nobody may want to go to war, but when we go we put 100% into it and that includes the popular support of the troops in ways NEVER SEEN in history!!
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