Deployed troops who have ties to Towson, either through friends or family, will be lent a helping hand this Veteran’s Day.
Student veterans across campus are gathering items in room three of the Lecture Hall to create and send care packages to deployed relatives and friends of Towson’s students, faculty and staff, according to Tracy Miller, academic adviser and coordinator of National Student Exchange, said.
All Towson students, faculty and staff are encouraged to contribute to the collection.
The SGA affiliated veterans group started the care package drive last year in correlation with their formation.
Even in the group’s first year of running the care package drive, they were successful, according to Miller.
“Last year was the first year that the veterans group existed, so it was their first time,” Miller said. “With the help of the SGA and many campus departments, the vets packed and shipped about 30 cartons.”
The student veterans compiled a variety of different items they’re asking for students and staff to donate. The list includes food such as beef jerky, sunflower seeds and Ramen; clothing, such as winter hats and boxer briefs and forms of entertainment such as books, magazines and crossword puzzles; among other things.
“The vets thought about what [the troops] wanted and needed, rather than what we typically think they need,” Miller said.
The list also featured less common things such as silly string.
“The silly string can be used when an infantry person is out on patrol to detect trip wires… of course, it can be fun, too,” Miller added.
In the near future, the group plans to send small decorative trees to overseas troops, according to Miller.
“People in financial aid, [Towson] police, facilities management and academic advising donated a lot, but other people did too… we hope to do that again [this year],” Miller said. “It builds morale by letting them know that people at home are thinking of them, and it gives them things they had been missing.”
The group is composed of Towson students that have at one point spent time in either Iraq or Afghanistan.
“There are over 100 student veterans on campus and are comprised of men and women, older and younger students, all sorts of majors and all sorts of ethnic and racial backgrounds,” Miller said. “What unites them is having given up time in their lives to serve.”
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