Clothing sought for injured soldiers
The local Adopt-a-Soldier project is
looking to clothe injured soldiers as part of its newest campaign,
Operation: Skivvies for Wounded.
Organizer Kim Jones said this is one of
the most important projects of Adopt-a-Soldier to date.
Through the operation, she is
encouraging residents to gather new and unused clothing, including
underwear, T-shirts, socks, pajamas, sweatpants and slippers, to
send to a medical aid station in Afghanistan.
“This project will be ongoing,” she
said. “This one will never stop.”
Jones reports that when soldiers are
injured in battle, their clothes are cut off, burned or soiled and
have to be thrown out. These individuals are often transported to
Germany for further treatment and then sent to hospitals in the
United States, but are frequently transported wrapped in blankets
or hospital gowns.
“They have nothing to wear except what
they’ve arrived in,” she said. “If it wasn’t for friends and
families, that (blanket) would be all they had.”
Jones received confirmation e-mails
from others that this was in fact the case for wounded
soldiers.
“It really touched my heart,” she said.
“It confirmed that this is the best effort we’ve endeavored to
do.”
Jones, who started Adopt-a-Soldier
during her son’s deployment and has continued supporting soldiers
since, received a request from an aid station for clothing in all
sizes, but particularly in large and medium, to help give the
wounded their own clothes to wear. Jones notes that soldiers are
always in need of a variety of items, including toiletries such as
tooth brushes and tooth paste.
“People can do what they can. It
doesn’t have to just be clothing,” she said. “It can just be a
letter of encouragement or a bag of hard candy.”
For those who are looking for ideas of
what else to send, Jones points to the website
mtsupportingsoldiers.com for a list of both winter and summer
suggestions. For more information and to get the shipping address
for the medical aid station, contact Jones at
kimjones@montanasky.net.