City employees work to help troops
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, a few employees at Grovetown City Hall want soldiers to know how much they appreciate their service overseas.
Connie Smith (left) and Vicky Capetillo sort out the items that have been collected at Grovetown City Hall to send to troops in Iraq. Capetillo said that there is no deadline for making donations.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
That's why they're collecting donated items to send to Iraq.
"You don't hear much about (what people are doing for the troops overseas) as much anymore," said Vicky Capetillo, a utility clerk at the Grovetown City Hall. "This is something we should always think about."
Since September, Capetillo said, employees at Grovetown City Hall have been participating in an ongoing collection of donated items such as blankets, brown T-shirts, cotton underwear, boot-length socks, magazines and toiletries to ship to soldiers serving in Iraq.
"There is no time limit (to make a donation) because they haven't placed a time limit on how long they'll be in Iraq," she said.
The project, Capetillo said, was launched when Marjorie Adams, a Grovetown councilwoman, learned that support of soldiers serving in Iraq was beginning to decline in the community.
"This disturbed her," Capetillo said of Adams, whose husband fought in Vietnam twice and is now retired in the military. "She knew what it was like when he was away, so she kind of took it upon herself and started going around collecting any kind of donations she could get."
So far, Capetillo said, the group has collected enough items from residents, church groups and pupils at Stevens Creek Elementary in Martinez to ship 16 boxes of donated items to soldiers serving in remote areas of Iraq. She also said Grovetown Mayor Dennis Trudeau has donated money to be able to ship the packages.
"This is a worthy cause," Capetillo said. "We have blankets, batteries, cards, dice, games, chopsticks, candy, cookies in tin cans, shaving cream in nonaerosol cans and lots of toothpaste and toothbrushes. I mean, our soldiers are going to have the cleanest teeth.''
TO MAKE A DONATION
Items may be dropped off during office hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Grovetown City Hall, located at 103 Robinson Ave., or after hours at the Department of Public Safety, 306 E. Robinson Ave. Donations may also be dropped off during Grovetown's tree-lighting ceremony 6:30 p.m. Dec. 3, and at the 2004 Christmas in America celebration, the lighting of Columbia County's official Christmas tree, beginning at 4:30 on Dec. 4 in Evans. For more information, call 863-4576.