The “Cards and Care Packages for Troops” event began as a one-woman effort in Rapid River in 1991. Sherry Nutt sent 500 cards to troops during the first Persian Gulf War after both her cousin and her cousin’s husband were deployed to the Middle East for 16 months, leaving three children at home. She put a stick of Juicy Fruit gum in each card, and an appreciative response from troops led her to continue the effort each year.
“They said even before they opened the card, they could smell the gum and it reminded them of home,” Nutt said.
Nutt now lives at K.I. Sawyer and is organizing a day of card signing and care package assembly at the West Branch Community Center beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Last year, with the help of volunteers and school groups across the Upper Peninsula, she sent 42,850 cards.
“This year my goal is 45,000, and we’re about halfway there already,” Nutt said. “It’s a full-year job.”
She assembles 9,000 packages herself each year and volunteers do the rest.
Nutt hasn’t been in the military — but she’s the exception in her family. Her husband is a disabled veteran; one son is in the Army; and another son, an Iraq War veteran, is in the National Guard. Of three daughters-in-law, one is serving a second deployment in Iraq, one is an Army soldier expecting to deploy soon and one is a Navy veteran.
Scheduled to coincide with Make A Difference Day, a national effort to encourage volunteering, Saturday’s event is open to volunteers of all ages.
Nutt said people are welcome to bring their own cards or materials to make cards, though some also will be provided. Items for care packages also are welcome. Throughout the year, Nutt and other volunteers gather things for the packages, including snacks, books, personal care items, CDs and DVDs.
“I always tell people, anything you’d miss if you went far away for a long time,” she said.
Donations of money toward shipping costs are also very much needed, Nutt said.
Participants are encouraged to bring addresses of service members overseas, if they are aware of any, said Bill Hill, assistant director of the W. But there are plenty of other troops on Nutt’s mailing list, too.
“She’s got addresses of hundreds, of thousands of people,” Hill said.
He added they expect volunteer groups from as far away as Iron River and are hoping for a lot more.
“We don’t know what to expect. We might be packed with people,” Hill said. “We hope there’ll be thousands of people making thousands of cards.”
Hill said as an additional incentive, the center is opening its doors for free to the public Saturday so both children and adults can play, swim or exercise without charge as part of the event.
In conjunction with the project, Boy Scout Troop 356 of Skandia will be helping with the cards and taking donations of $25 to send popcorn to service members the donor chooses. Proceeds from the popcorn benefit the Boy Scout troop.
For more information, call the W at 346-3559 or Nutt at 346-6971.
