Serving These Communities

Covering the Heart of Hamilton County Since 1983

By Jeanie Wrenn

Boatsie’s Boxes is a non-profit, 501c(3), charitable organization dedicated to supporting our troops when they are far away from home and when they are injured and in hospitals.

The name Boatsie is the nick-name of the founder Gail VanVranken – whose son Patrick was a Master Sgt in the United States Air Force. He sent his mom an urgent note asking her to send some supplies that most of us take for granted but when you are in Iraq or Baghdad – or where ever our troops are around the world – you have trouble getting a hold of these items. It all started with that first box of supplies and it has now grown to a non-profit organization. Boatsies appreciates when community or service organizations can help in gather these supplies and packing the boxes to go out to our service people.

Sharonville Federated Woman’s Club is very active in working with projects related to children, the elderly and our Military Troops so this seemed like a wonderful match.

We are preparing for the upcoming Holidays and need to get started right away so that the boxes have time to travel to hospitals serving our young injured military men and women and to our Airmen, Marines, Soldiers and Sailors.

Here is a list of the items that the service people tell us they really need. And remember that the Military is strict about what our service men and women are allowed to wear. Please send only the clothes on the list.

Miscellaneous Items: Greeting cards, stationary, pens, stamps – so they can write home, Mag lights & Batteries in AA/AAA sizes. DVDs, CDs, CD players, games of all kinds. Current magazines, (AT & T phone cards), all purpose wipes, bug spray with deet, sleep shades for eyes, air freshner, battery operated alarm clock.

Clothing: Underwear for men and women – white cotton, socks for both sexes and in black, brown or white. Sweat pants & tops in grey, navy, or black in all sizes. Cotton gym shorts in grey, navy, black – all sizes. Cotton t—shirts in army green, tan, brown, grey, navy or black – all sizes. Sneakers of all sizes. Heavy duty shower slippers (closed or open toes), black fleece gloves – no logo’s, black watch hats – no logos, navy style caps to go under helmets – November to February.

Medical & Hygiene Products: Any type of tote bags in black for wounded to carry belongings. all toiletries travel & regular size, Bar & Liquid Soap, Saline eye drops & nose drops or spray. Sunblock SPF 50, carmex, chap stick, over the counter allergy medicine, Tylenol, Advil, Ben Gay Patches, First aid kits, hand sanitizer, Kleenex.

Food/Beverage/Snack Items: Snacks healthy or otherwise, cookies, crackers, gummy candy, chocolate – any kind, Pringles, munch & crunch, polar ice gum, tootsie pops, cashews and all nuts, chocolate buddy bars. Note: Chocolate can be sent during the months of October to April. Apple sauce cups, beef jerky, fruit cups – for the hospital), juice boxes, packs with straws attached, coffee creamer, gourmet coffee such as Starbucks & flavored coffee, crystal light, energy drinks – all kinds.

Whether you believe in the war or not – that is a political issue. This is not political – it is about those brave men and women of the United States military fighting and giving of themselves to keep the rest of us free and to keep trouble away from our shores. These men and women deserve nothing less than our full support. Please join us and together we can make a difference.

In support of this project, my office (2241 Crowne Point Drive, Ste. 200 – across from Cracker Barrel) has volunteered to be a drop off location for this project. You can drop off items from Monday thru Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through the first Saturday in October. If you need to drop off items outside of these hours you can call Jeanie at 772-4811 and make arrangements that meet your schedule. You can also drop off items with any Federated Woman’s Club member.

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