Overseas Wishes
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/587439/posts
Posted on 12/10/01 9:03 AM Pacific by NorCoGOP
This story is also posted on-line at: http://www.greeleytribune.com
Overseas wishes
Story By Mike Peters
Posted on Monday, December 10 @ 02:34:14 EST
Volunteers at the Evans Moose Lodge 909 work to address 1,500 Christmas cards
bound for sailors aboard ships in the Middle East.
Jim Rydbom / Greeley Tribune
"About a week from today, aboard the USS John Paul Jones somewhere in the Middle East, a lonely sailor will open a Christmas card from people he has never met in two towns he has never heard of: Greeley and Evans.Way to go, NorCoGOP!
That sailor and his 350 shipmates, along with 700 more aboard the USS John Young and the USS Russell, are the recipients of Christmas wishes borne in the minds of Butch Webeck and Shawn Harmer, members of the Greeley/Evans Moose Club in Evans.Both men are Navy veterans, Webeck serving in the Vietnam era, his son-in-law Harmer during the Gulf War. Both know what it was like to be away from home on Christmas.
“You go out on that deck on Christmas Day, and it almost seems deserted,” Webeck said. “It’s a lonely, empty feeling. ... you wonder what your family’s doing way back home on that day.”
So the two men came up with the idea of sending Christmas cards to sailors. They first decided to take card donations for the sailors of one ship, about 350 aboard a destroyer.
They placed a notice in their Moose newsletter, asking members to donate new cards, or even leftover, unused cards from previous Christmases. It wasn’t long before the men realized people were generous when it came to honoring their military.
“Now we have about 1,500 cards,” Harmer said Saturday, as the club members gathered to package the cards. “Five times what we thought we’d get. We added two more destroyers, and saved some for next year.”
Members not only donated cards — some coming from as far away as Florida — but individually signed the cards and added Christmas messages.
Frank Vawter of Greeley goes through a stack of Christmas cards
bound for sailors serving on three ships in the Middle East.
Jim Rydbom / Greeley TribuneOn Saturday, members of the Moose met at the lodge, along with some Navy recruits, to package the cards. They placed a special message in each card, a letter thanking the sailors for their sacrifices that ends with “We also hope that you are able to return home soon, to your families, friends, and loved ones.”The Moose and recruits were there because of their concern for the lonely sailors. “There are so many kids that don’t get anything for Christmas, not even a card,” said Charlsi Webeck, Butch’s wife.
The volunteers packed the envelopes and cards in cardboard boxes addressed to each ship. Thanks to the local Navy recruiters, the boxes will be cleared through the mail, despite the restrictions imposed on overseas military mail because of the recent anthrax incidents.
The Navy recruits were also there Saturday — mostly students from the Delayed Entry Program — who will graduate from high school before leaving for duty.
They were brought to the lodge by the local Navy recruiters, and each soon-to-be sailor jumped into the task of packaging the cards.
They seem to know that next Christmas, they could be the sailors on a ship in a faraway ocean on Christmas Day."
