Christmas packages sent to military through Project Uplift

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    By Amorie Sheen

    BYU students have the opportunity to thank the people who protect their freedom this Christmas.

    BYUSA is sponsoring Project Uplift, a service project that will send packages to military personnel all over the world.

    Valerie Romney, program director of Project Uplift, said the packages will go to Korea, Germany and all over the states.

    The project directors have called chaplains and asked them how many packages they would like to be sent.

    Project Uplift handed boxes out to college students who decorated the boxes and put gifts in them and will return the box to the same booth when they are full.

    The chaplains have been given church funds to throw a Christmas party and give the boxes to the military personnel, Romney said.

    Most of the gifts go to LDS servicemen without families, but some of them go to servicemen who are not LDS and some who have families, Romney said.

    Romney said they have handed out more than 1,400 boxes to students anxious to help, and will continue to hand them out through Thursday, Nov. 9.

    Sarah Montierth, executive director of Project Uplift, said the project ends Friday, Nov. 10.

    All of the gifts have to be in by then in order to make it to their destinations in time for Christmas.

    Some suggested gifts to send in the boxes are inspirational thoughts, stationary, pens, and letters, Montierth said.

    Romney said she would recommend sending stories, testimonies, film, or toiletries that the military personnel do not get as military issue.

    Frank Root IV, a former Marine, said military men can get most regular amenities from stores on base.

    “What you miss are things that actually remind you of home,” Root said.

    Root said socks would be a good gift and also magazines or a personal note, perhaps thanking them, would mean a lot.

    Candy shouldn’t be sent because the men are not allowed to take food back to their barracks, Romney said.

    Montierth said the object of the gifts is to make the servicemen’s Christmas a little better.

    “I would just ask myself, how can I make one military man smile with this one little box,” Montierth said.

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