Community Action accepting Treats for Troops

Agency wants to send gifts to soldiers for holidays

Provided photo – Jared Ostrander, 7, (left) and his brother Jorden, 10, help sort and pack holiday boxes to be sent to American troops overseas.

ALBION – Kristen Ostrander said she loves the Christmas holiday season, the family memories that are made and the celebrations.

Many local families will miss those close interactions this season because a member of their family is serving with the military overseas.

“We take that for granted,” Ostrander said about the family time over the holidays. “But many soldiers won’t be able to be home.”

Ostrander wants to send soldiers packages with various goodies as a reminder that their community cares about them. She is heading a “Treats for Troops” effort. Ostrander would like to fill at least 50 boxes that are about shoebox size and send them to troops.

The community is welcome to donate items – personal care products, packaged food, magazines, games and other activity items. Ostrander also is raising money to mail the boxes at $15 each.

Community Action led the effort for filling the boxes about a year ago. A donor paid the postage last year. That funding isn’t available this year.

Donations for the packages can be dropped off at Community Action on East State Street in Albion and at its center in Holley, at GCASA in Albion and also at the Kendall Elementary School.

Kendall fifth- and sixth-graders are collecting supplies for the packages and also writing letters to the soldiers.

The deadline for donating is Nov. 1. Ostrander said volunteers will then fill all the packages and have them mailed by Nov. 19 so they can be delivered in time for Christmas.

For more information, contact Andrea Skowneski, case manager at Community Action, at 585-589-5605 ext. 105 or by email at askowneski@caoginc.org.