Post 31 putting together holiday gift bags for veterans
Christmastime is time of joy and giving for many residents of The Shoals.
A time to see family and friends while giving gifts and spreading some Christmas cheer.
However, not everyone receives presents or even visitors during the holidays.
Some of these people are aging veterans, ones who might not have any family to come see them.
Many of them might find themselves ringing in the holiday alone in a nursing home or the like.
For Doug Hargett, commander for American Legion Post 31 in Tuscumbia, this was not a pleasant thought.
So, he decided to start a program about four years ago that took donated or purchased items, put them in gift bags and pass them out to local veterans who might not have any visitors or presents for the holidays.
“The first year we started out with something like 75 gift bags that we took to veterans for Christmas who might be shut in,” said Lance Smith, post finance officer, head of the Color Guard and former post commander. “It has grown every year. Last year, we did 370-something bags. It has grown that much in four years.”
On Nov. 5, Hargett, Smith and other Post 31 members helped carry in a number of bags loaded with gift items put together by TVA, whom Smith said is a “huge” sponsor for the program.
“I think they gave us something like $6,000 worth of items,” he said. “Their employees, especially the veteran’s association, bagged the items up. When we went to TVA, everything was prebagged and ready to go to the veterans.”
Smith said the veterans gift bag program has other supporters like the Elks Lodge in Sheffield, the local Ladies Auxiliary and Easterseals in Muscle Shoals.
“Right now, we’ve got close to 200 bags already,” he said. “The Elks Lodge in Sheffield brought us 35 large boxes of gift items. We broke those down into smaller bags to make more gift bags.”
On top of those groups, Smith said a number of items that end up in the gift bags come from local civic groups wanting to help out veterans.
So, what exactly goes into the bags?
“All kinds of toiletries like toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shirts, hairbrushes and socks,” Smith said. “A lot of older people like nice, warm socks. We also do snacks like crackers and peanuts. We will also include puzzle books like word searches, crosswords and Sudoku. That gives them something to do instead of sitting there staring at a brick wall all day long.”
The growth of the program has allowed Post 31 to broaden the area where gift bags are distributed.
Currently, veterans in Colbert, Lauderdale, Franklin and Lawrence counties receive the items.
Hargett said Alabama Power has shown interest in joining the program, which may lead to a wider area of veterans receiving holiday gift bags.
“I would love to see this thing spread statewide,” Hargett said. “TVA has helped us out so much. Any time we mention we want to do something for our veterans, they are quick to jump in and help out. This is a great program. We had a couple of ladies in Florence go through their neighborhood with a child’s wagon last year. They loaded that sucker down. We were surprised how much they got together to help us out. It’s things like that that really make this project worthwhile.”
Smith said after the bags are put together, a team of eight to 10 people will go to nursing homes/assisted living facilities and private residences in the area to distribute them.
He said it is “really uplifting” to see the veterans’ faces when they receive the bags.
“Some of them in the nursing homes don’t get a lot of visitors,” he said. “I hate to say it, but sometimes people who end up in nursing homes are basically forgotten. It lights up their faces when they see hey, these younger veterans are thinking about me and want to thank us for what we did years ago. They are like a young kid at Christmastime opening up a present.”
Smith said Post 31 appreciates what all the different organizations and people have done to support the program since its inception.
“We are looking to keep it growing and make it bigger every year,” he said.
