June 2008

Good News!  Many of our contacts have returned home after a long tour in Iraq. We thank them for their service and sacrifice and are so glad they are home with their families.

1LT Matt Offiler has arrived home after 15 months in Iraq.

Hi Kristin,
Well I'm finally home! Got back the other morning (very early). Its
nice to be able to relax and start to get back to normal. I just
wanted to say Thanks for all the support your and Pack It Up gave me
and my soldiers in the past 15 months. I am looking forward to coming
home in October for the race, but I will be home in May as well and I'm
sure I will find some time to make it to RI to say Thank You in
person. I hope everything is going well back on the East Coast (its
way better than saying 'back in the states'). I hope I hear from you
again soon.

Matt.

1LT Kevin Mills, who was previously stationed with Matt Offiler, returned home a few weeks after Matt.
Kristin,

The only thing I'd ask for are a few bags of coffee. We're running low on anything better than Maxwell House. We'll be home in a few weeks (as I'm sure Matt's said), so I'd recommend these packages be the last you send over as we'll be shipping a lot of our own stuff home pretty soon.

The weather's staying cool, so no complaints about the rain. We all did watch the Superbowl. I think everyone was stunned more than anything, whoever someone was supporting. I did get all the Patriots gear. Thank you.

Thank you, in advance, for the packages. They're always appreciated, and we can pass out all the food and treats very quickly.

Hope all is well. Take care.

v/r
Kevin

LTjg Bill Feaster, is expected home in late June/early July. We will keep you updated.  We sent the last set of packages to Eric McDermott.

Hi Kristin,
Nice to hear from you. things are going well, we are anticipating getting home sometime late June. If you are sending packages my way- please address them to LT Eric McDermott. I am currently not at the location and cannot receive any mail. He knows to distribute to the men. I really appreciate all you have done for me, and my men.

Regards,

Bill

SGT Nathan Cleary is home!  We know he is home. We hope to hear from him soon and will keep you updated.

Latest Packages:

We sent out packages to Eric McDermott and our new contact Jonah Carpenter.  We loaded them up with snacks, magazines, books and DVDs. Many of the items sent to Iraq were donated to Pack It Up by a group called People to People.

From Nick Rossi, who coordinated the donations:

"People to People is a student ambassador group that travels to different countries to learn about different cultures and to promote our culture in a foreign country in a positive way. A small part of the program is to do a service project in the United States before we do another service project for a day or two in a foreign country. My particular delegation is made up of almost all Rhode Islanders and is traveling to Australia for 18 days.

I suggested that we donate to Pack it Up (after running the road race) for our service project and offered to drop everything off. My delegation leader, Sarah Cannon, approved of it and she also got quite a few of her fellow teachers to donate to Pack it Up as well."

Thank you People to People!!

Meet our newest contact, Jonah Carpenter:


Find out more about Jonah