Chaplain project

Bruce Crosby/McCook Daily Gazette [Click to enlarge]

Ann Trail, displaying one of the 9,300 cross ribbons she and friends have created for the Adopt A Chaplain organization, has a new dream of sending 500 "care" packages to her current chaplain for distribution to military personnel in Iraq. The chaplain, Capt. Melissa Hale, is stationed with her husband at Forward Operating Base Falcon near Baghdad. By Dec. 1, she plans to send gallon-sized plastic bags and the donated Christmas goodies to fill them. Suggested donations include individually wrapped snacks, Cup of Noodle soups or other lunch items, drink mix for 20-ounce water bottles, M&Ms and Reese's Pieces, candy, Nerf guns, water guns, yo-yos, DVDs, audio books on CD, handheld games, pocket-size bottles of hand sanitizers, baby wipes, tennis balls, bouncy balls, hacky sacks, cookies, radio controlled cars, cigars, bubbles, beef jerky, nuts, card games, playing cards, Chap Stik, lip stick and puzzle books like Sudoku and crosswords. Donations of cash to help pay postage are also welcome. For more information, call (308) 345-5181 or (308) 340-3578. More information about the Adopt A Chaplain project is available here.