‘They’re giving up their lives for us’; Nonprofit supports troops with care packages amid Middle East conflict
By Rachel Williams
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LAKE WORTH BEACH, Florida (WPBF) — Forgotten Soldiers Outreach, a nonprofit in Lake Worth, is providing care packages to service members deployed in the Middle East as strikes continue to escalate in the region.
Every month, the nonprofit organization sends “We Care” packages to over 5,200 military personnel around the world. Susan Hill, the executive assistant at Forgotten Soldiers Outreach, explained, “The military personnel can either register themselves, family members register them, or what we’re finding is team leaders, chaplains, commanders are registering them. More and more families are registering them because they can’t afford the supplies to send over to their loved ones.”
Hill noted that since the U.S.-Israeli strike operation kicked off the Iran war over the weekend, the organization has been receiving more requests for care packages. “We just had a mother who’s a little panicked because her daughter’s deployment has been extended. We’re finding that a lot of our ships over there are now being extended, so people that we thought were coming home, all of a sudden we’re getting emails from them saying, oh, wait a minute, we’re going to be moving on,” she said.
As the organization prepares for the next shipment, volunteers are packing multiple care packages, specializing the contents based on where the service members are in the world and how many people are receiving the package. For example, if they’re shipping to service members in Poland, they will pack socks due to colder weather temperatures.
Hill explained, “We might have a squad that might have anywhere from 150 to 200 people in it. We’ll include a little bit of as much as what we can in every box. It’ll be a combination, a mixture of different items.”
The majority of shipments are headed to the Middle East, supporting service members in places like Kuwait, Israel, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, and many more. Hill emphasized the importance of supporting troops amid escalating conflict overseas, saying, “There’s nothing like home. I mean, these people are giving up their lives for us. So, it’s really important that we stand behind them and support them.”
The organization announced that the next shipment is scheduled for March 11 and they still need a variety of supplies to send off. Hill said, “We need the travel baby wipes, we need travel toothpaste, we need travel deodorants. The travel tissues are very important. Believe it or not, tampons, they can use those for wound control, they’re not just for women. We need nutrition, we need tuna packets, nutrition bars, things that are going to give them a little extra boost along the way. They can just shove it into their pocket when they need it.”
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