Perry County group reaps sweet rewards
Veterans Memorial Committee planning rally and donation collection for care packages Sept. 13
|
Print
Share
Email to a friend
Add This
Feeds
Local News
Article RatingThere’s nothing quite as comforting as cookies for the holidays.
With that in mind, the Perry County MRP Veterans Memorial Committee is working to spread the coziness with care packages for American troops fighting in the Middle East.
To help with the effort, they’ve scheduled a rally to gather donations Sept. 13, right after the Marysville Lions Club Fall Festival and car show at the Lions Club.
The Support Our Troops rally will feature at least one speaker from Carlisle Barracks.
The committee, named for the communities of Marysville, Rye and Perdix, has been holding rallies near Labor Day and rallies and services near Memorial Day each year since the fall of 2003.
Their events began when founder Dan Boyer’s son went to Iraq and the elder Boyer put up yellow ribbons around Marysville for him.
When the young soldier’s grandmother, Julie Boyer, saw the ribbons, she suggested a rally and the new tradition was born.
“I’ve seen a lot of these kids take off and go into the military and into some pretty tough areas,” Boyer Sr. said. “We want these men and women to be remembered and celebrated for what they do.”
But those semi-annual gatherings aren’t the only work the committee members do.
They and their volunteers work year-round putting together care packages and gathering related donations like soap, magazines and DVDs, as well as baking supplies.
That’s why the rallies are aimed more at fundraising than donations of supplies for the packages, said committee member Traci Lightner.
That money is needed to send the packages, which can cost about $10 to $20 in postage for each box, she said.
Meanwhile, Kathy Flyzik runs the treat-making part of the operation -- known as Task Force Cookie.
The cookies started as a private project of Flyzik’s when her son, a soldier in Iraq, told her some of his fellow soldiers weren’t getting any mail from home.
Eventually the operation grew too large for Flyzik’s kitchen and she had to turn to the church for help.
“We got so many requests that we had to approach a church and ask if we could use their commercial-sized ovens,” she said.
And the community’s interest in her baking grew too.
Now Flyzik gets requests for cookies from all over Perry and Cumberland counties, and volunteers from teenagers to grandmothers come from miles around to help.
“The kids are great,” Flyzik said. “The kids in the community always step up. Some of them have never baked before.”
She generally keeps the baking tied to the winter holidays, she said, but she’s willing to make exceptions when people ask.
Both parts of the operation are always looking for donations and more community members to join the volunteers, who range from teens to grandmothers, Traci Lightner said.
