CLAREMORE, Oklahoma — As the holidays near, many men and women who serve our country overseas won’t be coming home for Christmas. A group of students in Rogers County are sending a mix of Christmas joy and the Oklahoma standard to the state’s bravest.
The Rogers Co. Training Leaders’ Community 4-H club partners with the Blue Star Mothers of Oklahoma to fill stockings and send them to troops from Rogers County who are deployed.
This year the club hand-sewn 30 stockings filled with toiletries, snacks, candy, and letters from the students to show thanks and let troops know their state is thinking about them.
Donna Daley, the leader of T-L-C 4-H, told 2 News that this is the eighth year of this project, and one soldier back in Oklahoma told her a story about getting his stocking.
"The manager there had been deployed so he had received one of these packages, and he said it was so fun getting something and knowing somebody cares about us,” Daley said.
The club consists of students of all ages from home and public schools across Rogers County.
Daley said the goal of the students' projects, such as making homemade birthday cards for veterans at the Claremore VA Clinic, is to become well-rounded leaders in their community and respect those who’ve sacrificed their lives for their freedoms.
“I think they learn about patriotism in this one. They also are learning that we need to treat our military with dignity and pride,” Daley said.
The students asked for donations from businesses across the county like QuikTrip, Atwoods, and Chick-fil-A, and received all the supplies they needed to fill the stockings with reminders of home.
After the stockings are filled, they are boxed up and will be shipped out. The troops are expected to receive the packages in 3 to 4 weeks, right before Christmas.
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