“I’m super happy - in the midst of a pandemic we surpassed our goal and filled 609 boxes to send to military soldiers deployed overseas and stationed stateside who are unable to leave their bases,” said Kraft-Ostrom American Legion Post 142 Commander Chad Sheridan. Collecting boxes for the military during the coronavirus proved to be a challenge, but the veterans at the post came up with a creative way to get the job done. “Instead of collecting donations and having the community help us pack boxes as in years past, we decided to ask the community to 'Pick Up a Box, Fill a Box,'" said Sheridan. Legion volunteers passed out shippable boxes to the community on Wednesday evenings and Saturday and Sunday mornings during the month of January. Filled boxes were also dropped off during that time. Boxes will be shipped off this week.
“We wanted to set a goal of 600 boxes. In the past, we have only sent boxes of encouragement showing our support to military deployed overseas. With the pandemic, we discovered that soldiers stationed stateside were not allowed to leave their bases and decided to show them our support as well,” Sheridan explained. “We are so thankful for the community support including the Cannon Falls EMT, Fire Department, Police Department and the Miesville Fire Department,” he continued. “I am very humbled by the generosity of all those who contributed. We also collected enough donations to cover all the shipping.”
This was the fourth year for the event to support local military, with the first year shipping 93 boxes. The second year the post shipped 293 boxes and last year were able to ship 342 boxes. “Thank you to all who supported our Legion post in this event to support our troops,” Sheridan added.