ESSEX, Vt. (WCAX) – Bags and boxes are piling up, and being loaded into a trailer.
“We just came down to like, donate. I don’t know, I just feel like I am making a change. Like, a good change.” Miles Cole said.
Eleven year old Miles Cole took a visit with his mom, to the old Essex Memorial Hall. To donate some snacks for the Operation Adopt A Soldier. He says he can’t wait to do it again.
“Some candy and books and stuff to give to the soldiers. Because I feel like they need it more than we do. It’s the right thing to do,” Cole said.
The non-profit partnered with Essex Parks and Recreation to collect donated items from the community on Sunday. Throughout the day, eighty people filled bags with food, Halloween candy, tooth brushes, deodorant, soap and even baseball gloves.
Out of Saratoga, Albany, Queensbury, and Clifton Park, New York, Operation Adopt A Soldier works to provide support and care packages to U.S. soldiers stationed worldwide.
The Vermont Army National Guard says events like this make a huge difference.
“Really when you get these packages when you’re out there. It is a really good feeling to have something from home. Whether it be a pack of beef jerky or a thing of socks. Whatever it is, to really boost your morale,” Sargent James Varian of the Vt. Army National Guard said.
The organization says this is the first time they have done a drive like this in Essex – to broaden their reach.
With all the donations from the event, the non-profit will be able to send six hundred care packages.
On average, they send three hundred care packages overseas every other week.
“Ten, twelve years ago we used to get a lot of supplies. Now it’s much harder to get people involved, businesses involved. Because everybody is hurting.” volunteer Howard Longway said.
Everything in the boxes will be separated and put into care packages. Those will be sent out in the next couple of weeks.