We’ve been doing these care packages for over 5 years now.
Probably 90% of the people on our list came from a Duke employee from North Carolina to Indiana to Kentucky to Ohio.
We’ve sent care packages to Germany, Japan, Korea, Cuba, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
We’ve been sending care packages to over 100 people (some are duplicates due to additional deployments)
and over 1000 care packages.

Tom and I do this alone.
We are not part of the Yellow Ribbon (Matt Maupin) group.
Most people think that Yellow Ribbon is the Clermont County Care package organization but they are not the only ones. They are the ones who are on the TV and the ones that most events such as this weekend’s Welcome Home Celebration support financially.
There are other groups that send care packages like Tom and I do but I believe there are a lot of people who think the Yellow Ribbon Group represents Clermont County.

For the past year, Tom and I have lost our sponsors and have been paying for the care packages
with the help of donations.
There are times that we do not get donations for a long time.
There are times when we get a generous donation that helps pay for postage and care package items for a while.
But things are different these days.
The economy makes things difficult too.

Occasionally, I get a nice letter like my Anonymous Vietnam Veteran letter that I treasure so much.
Sometimes there are things that happen that encourage us that the struggles we go through may be difficult,
but the troops struggle far more and need what little support we give to about 20 troops at a time.

Thursday night, I went to another Clermont County care package group – again not the Yellow Ribbon Group –
and visited Mia.
Mia shared her donation she received of Girl Scout Cookies with me.
I know have about 20 or 30 CASES of cookies to send overseas.
This will fill quite a lot of care packages but there is more involved to sending a care package.
Mia is very generous with her extra donations of food and has shared with me many times.
Thank you .

So Friday morning, I decided to make a thank you card for Mia.
You may not know that I scrapbook, do Iris Folding, and Quilling (not with a “T” like quilt).
This makes the card thick and can be damaged in the mail.
Since I know where Mia works and I was going out anyway, I decided to drop it off at her place of employment.
The scrapbook store “Scraps, Etc.” is in the same area as Mia’s office.
I really don’t have any extra money for scrapbook supplies or need many supplies
but I felt a need to go in and see what is new.

While I was there, I overheard two women speaking to Debbie, the store clerk, about someone going overseas
to Iraq and their concerns.
So I interrupted and asked them if they had a military support group to go to.
The one lady said no. So I handed her our business card.
She read it and hugged me and whispered “Anderson and tea party.”
Well, this didn’t register to me and I thought,
“Yes, we’re in Anderson township and yes, I did go to a afternoon tea for lunch yesterday and this doesn’t make
any sense.”
Then she said “ Anderson” and then everything made sense.

Anderson is one of our military heroes from Kentucky and is a friend of Virgil from Zimmer Station.
Mr. Anderson's wife and I have been “talking” to her on e-mail lately.
Mr. Anderson is a Marine and is going to Dayton, Ohio for another deployment.
He will be there for about 1 week then he will go to Camp Lejuene in North Carolina until September.
In September he will be deployed to Iraq.
I had already contacted The Thank You Foundation to find a military support group near Mrs. Anderson's home
and she is going to contact them.
She felt she needed to go to a psychiatrist because of her fears, concerns, anxiety, depression, and nervous problems while her husband is away.
I suggested she try the support group first since they are going though the same thing and may be very helpful.
If they don’t help, then she should seek more medical help.

Back to meeting Mrs. Anderson …… we hugged and I looked at her eyes and she looked ready to cry.
Mr. Anderson recently learned he was adopted and his “new” sister was shopping with his wife.
These two were not planning on shopping at Scraps Etc. and neither was I.
But we all felt the need to go in and look around.
So it was one of those moments where God put us together to meet.
So I had the honor to meeting a military hero’s wife and sister-in-law that were already part of our military family
but we had never meet them yet.
We know none of the people we send care packages to but someone has given us their loved one and asked us
to take care of them.
All of the people on our list are strangers to us until we get the honor to meet them.

The 3 of us spoke at the store and got to know each other a little bit.
Mrs. Anderson will be taking care of their three little ones – one is not so little at 11 years old.
The others are 5 years old and 1 year old.
This deployment will be difficult for the Andersons
Care packages will be needed for him and an occasional e-mail or letter will be needed for the wife.

This is one of those moments that happen that tells us that we are doing the right thing.
We are making a difference in the lives of a few military heroes.
Ask a Veteran – not many things are worse than going to mail call and NOT hearing your name called.
None of us intended or planned to go to Scraps Etc. but He decided to tell us it was time to go and we got to meet
each other.
I don’t know how I did it, but I didn’t cry until I got out to the van.
It was a very emotional moment for us all and I kept my feelings under control for a while.

So just to reassure everyone, even if you don’t hear from us for a while, we will continue sending care packages
as long as we have currently deployed people from our military family book.
I was shown yesterday that we HAVE to continue sending these care packages.
I was pointed in the right direction and what are the odds that someone from Batavia would be at the nearby scrapbook store at the same time that one of our military family wives from Kentucky would be there and not at the Florence location.

If you believe, you know that Someone showed me that we need to keep doing this important project with
the help of all of our angels who are receiving this e-mail.
Together we are making a difference in the lives of a few troops.
From Washington to Maryland to all points between.
We have touched the lives of many Duke Energy people and their families.

Thank you for all of your support.
This story just shows that we need to continue this project and together we make a difference.
God bless you all and thank you for your continued support.
We couldn’t send these care packages out without your support.

Gina Patt
ambassador@fuse.net
513 . 732. 2057
4317 Cordial Place
Batavia, OH 45103
Or Tom Patt 513. 509. 1567

“We can’t all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.”
Will Rogers