Iraq troops get lots of care from Anacortes woman

ANACORTES – Clerks at the Anacortes post office know Hollie Brand by name.

Once a week or more, they see Brand carry in piles of boxes, wait in line and painstakingly fill out the forms necessary to ship them abroad.

The boxes are filled with beef jerky, sunscreen, CDs, DVDs, toiletries, chips and other items to nourish and entertain U.S. troops in Iraq.

Brand started sending packages to Iraq when her son, Chad, was there with the Marines in 2004. Since then, she’s sent more than 1,500 packages to U.S. soldiers.

“It was very scary with him gone,” she said. “That’s why I started sending packages. I needed to feel like I was helping, so I wasn’t sitting back worrying.”

Chad appreciated the care packages, but he said many other soldiers weren’t receiving anything from home, Brand said. Sometimes trucks with food wouldn’t make it to their destinations, and Chad would share the food from his care packages with other soldiers.

When Brand heard this, the idea to send packages to other troops was born. Chad gave her the names of other soldiers and she started making packages and mailing them off.

Each package Brand sends includes a letter introducing herself along with an addressed envelope and a blank piece of paper so soldiers can write back and ask for anything they need.

Sometimes organizing the packages, mailing them off and organizing fundraisers is difficult, Brand said, but thinking of soldiers’ sacrifices makes it all worthwhile.

“Thinking, ‘These guys work so hard for us; this is nothing,’ that really keeps me going,” she said.

As she met more troops’ families, Brand remembered how she had felt while her son was deployed and began reaching out to the spouses, children and parents of soldiers in Iraq.

She’s held baby showers for soldiers’ wives; collected baby items to give them; helped with the funerals of fallen soldiers; and sent gifts and cards on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and soldiers’ anniversaries.

The number of soldiers on her list fluctuates between 15 and 35 as soldiers come home and she meets new military families, she said. Many troops give her the names of the soldiers who will be replacing them.

In 2004, Brand began holding Support Our Troops garage sales at her home to help offset the costs of mailing packages. At the beginning she spent $18 to $25 on each package, but now she uses flat-rate boxes that cost $8.95 regardless of weight. All the proceeds from her sales go to sending packages.

Brand said she’s had an enthusiastic response from people in Anacortes. Many folks drop off garage sale donations at her house, the “Support Our Troops” magnets she sold last year disappeared quickly to be stuck on local cars, and her garage sales are well-attended.

Anacortes Women of Today, a community-service organization, named Brand the grand marshal of Anacortes’ Fourth of July parade to honor her efforts and spread the word about her work to soldiers’ families and others.

“It gives we the people some positive action to undertake so we, too, can help instead of just wondering what we can do,” said Ginny Miendl, the president of Anacortes Women of Today. “She offers a really good outlet for us.”

The garage sales do more than raise money; they also provide Brand with more soldiers’ names and addresses.

Shirley Carlson of Anacortes met Brand at one of these garage sales and told her about her grandson, John Dorsey, who was serving in Iraq with the Army at the time.

While Dorsey was in Iraq, Brand sent him packages and she continued to send cards once he returned to the United States.

“He appreciated it very much; they all do,” Carlson said. “Anything they get they appreciate, knowing that we care about them.”

Brand also kept in touch with Carlson by calling, e-mailing her supportive messages and bringing her a banner in honor of her grandson, Carlson said. She found Brand’s gestures touching and said they helped her to cope with Dorsey’s absence until he returned.

“Knowing I had somebody that cared about my grandson and me both through the years he was over there – it was very wonderful.”