By Megan Melton
Sunscreen, Gold Bond powder and Q-Tips.
These are some of the things that are most desired by U.S. soldiers overseas.
Seeing a need, Sandy Hughey and Barb Malmloss, with the Carmel Lutheran Church, Thrivent Financial and their sister church in Fishers, gathered collections to send Christmas in July care packages to soldiers overseas.
The United Service Organizations helped Hughey, Malmloss and their church to put on the drive.
“We selected items that we specifically asked for throughout the whole month of June,” Hughey said. “And this July, (we) processed all these items … and assembled 22 boxes to be shipped (overseas) to USO centers.”
Hughey is a care-package specialist for the USO of Indiana, who joined the Carmel Lutheran Church last November. This church has a military ministry, and she, along with Lindsay Thompson, are part of this ministry.
“I am involved already with care package projects,” Hughey said. “And we divided it up into three sections – hygiene, food/snacks and miscellaneous items.”
The military ministry committee of the church sends cards to military members and their families on the holidays.
“We send cards to our church (members) and friends who are in the military,” she said. “They aren’t all our church members, the list that we have. We remember them on the holidays or their birthdays.”
Hughey said the Christmas holiday is when she gets most of the inquiries about care packages to soldiers. She said she thought it would be a good idea to put on a Christmas in July event.
For more about sending care packages to troops, contact Sandy Hughey at [email protected].
