Local effort to send holiday decor, food to troops overseas

Happy Holidays. It's a greeting and a sincere wish, one that troops in the field find hard to achieve. One Vernon County bank is hoping to help one overseas unit achieve a happy Christmas season.

Charlotte Buerge, Metz Bank, who earlier this year was involved with a drive to send coffee for the troops, is now organizing a drive to get a forward operating base assigned to a unit within the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing some holiday cheer.

"I got a new e-mail from my daughter (Stephanie Spruill) and she said she was looking for some new things for the holidays," Buerge said.

Buerge said that her daughter had requested Christmas decorations and food for the unit.

"They are looking for stuffing mixes, canned hams and canned food," Buerge said. "They're unable to buy of those things over there."

In addition the unit would appreciate decorations such as tinsel, candy canes and small Christmas trees.

"They have to be small to fit in the boxes," Buerge said. "It can't be too heavy, either."

Strings of battery-powered strings of lights are also requested.

"They would like to have some battery-powered strings of lights," Buerge said. "They need them because the voltages are different over there and the regular type don't work."

Buerge said the coffee drive is still an ongoing effort and has been successful in getting troops their favorite form of caffeine.

"The coffee drive is a success and we'll continue with it," Buerge said. "We've been shipping about a box of coffee a week to them."