Local teens support wounded and deployed troops

by Ellen Summey
U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern

A group of local teens generously lent their time and talents to write letters, make care packages for wounded servicemembers and assemble Christmas gifts for deployed military personnel Aug. 15. The 29 middle school and high school students volunteered to help with the project coordinated by the Army Volunteer Corps, Operation Angel and Project Rudolph. 

On one of their last free days before school resumes, the generous teens said they were excited to take part in the project and hopeful that their contributions would put smiles on the faces of deployed and wounded servicemembers.
 
“It’s fun,” said 14-year-old Genevieve Fontaine of making the care packages. “I want to see their smiles when they get these.” 

“I think it means a lot to the Soldiers,” said 14-year-old Nicole Clark, agreeing that the group of volunteers was making a difference.    

The teens spent nearly six hours glueing, stapling and assembling 550 individual care packages to be delivered to patients at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center this week, as well as 80 Christmas gifts to be sent to deployed servicemembers this December.