The 2018 Santa for Soldiers project gather 19 boxes of items to help make the holidays brighter for soldiers. Alanna Bortolin, left, and Joyce Turner, right, delivered and mailed the packages. Items can be donated until Nov. 11, and monetary donations for postage will also be accepted until then.
It’s not too late to donate to Santa for Soldiers and brighten the holidays for soldiers serving in the military. Penn State York’s Blue and White Society has once again joined forces with the Penn State York Alumni Society (PSYAS), and Mt. Rose Barberama for “Santa for Solders” (SFS). The groups are working together to collect items, now through Sunday, Nov. 11 for U.S. Army soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.
“This project is a partnership with our Penn State York Alumni Society group and was brought to our campus as a community service effort that could get even more Penn Staters involved in sending some holiday cheer to our soldiers overseas,” said Iona Conlon, Blue & White Society adviser and an alumni and development specialist at Penn State York. “The Blue & White Society is the student extension of the Penn State Alumni Association,” he said.
Conlon noted that many Penn State York students, faculty and staff members have friends and families in the service, and SFS is just one small way they can get involved and help the troops.
Letters, cards, and items from toothpaste to playing cards to cheese crackers, are being collected now through Nov. 11. Some specific food requests from the solders include Hot Cheerios, beef jerky, fig Newtons, lime and chili pork rinds, oreo cookies, black licorice, Trident bubble gum, cashews. peanut butter, Twinkies, honey buns and cupcakes. For a list of items appropriate for donation, visit the PSYAS website at psyas.org. For more information, please contact Conlon, at 717-718-6781 or email [email protected], or contact Joyce Turner, SFS program coordinator and PSYAS board member, at 717-843-3291 or email [email protected].
Collection boxes at Penn State York are in the Pullo Family Performing Arts Center (The Pullo Center) near the box office, and The Bradley Building, 1118 South Albemarle Street, on campus. Donation boxes are also located at the Mt. Rose Barberama, 1160 Mt. Rose Ave., York.
Monetary gifts also will be accepted to help defray the cost of postage. Those who want to make monetary donations should visit psyas.org and click on the donate button to use PayPal to donate postage funds to SFS 2019.
