When Sais Singh returned from Iraq in 2006, he made the rounds to the students at Bridgewater schools who kept his spirits up through their donations of hygiene supplies, treats and handwritten cards sent through Operation Shoebox New Jersey.
“If you’re stationed on a major base with a lot of resources, you appreciate the treats and letters, but if you’re stationed remotely without any access to anything nice, they are gold,” says Singh, a Somerville High School graduate and veteran of the U.S. Army who served from 1994 to 2017 in places such as Panama, Cuba and Kuwait. “It was overwhelming how many people donated to support us.”
The packages were eagerly awaited and strengthened Singh’s connection to Somerset County. “I connected with a lot of people through Operation Shoebox. We are all family in the military but that connection when you go back home is really great,” he says, noting how people he did not even know but who saw his photo would approach him on the street to thank him for his service. “While the novelties were nice, the letters from people back home were the best. You can’t put a price on them. When I went to the schools and met the kids and the families on behalf of the Army, it made it real to them, too. It put a face to the name, which was very cool.”
Since 2005, Hillsborough-based Operation Shoebox New Jersey, with the assistance of thousands of volunteers, have packed and shipped over 180,000 care packages of food and toiletries to U.S. military personnel at 800 bases in 70 countries, including Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and other posts in the Middle East. They have even sent packages to the South Pole.
The all-volunteer, grassroots organization operates with the help of donated supplies and financial support to pay for shipping. Several times each year, individuals and community groups gather to sort donated supplies and pack them in boxes to be shipped overseas.
“In many instances, these service men and women are in godforsaken places, like isolated in submarines for six months or in places where the temperature reaches 110 degrees. A lot are lonely, young and away from home for the first time,” says Executive Director Rod Hirsch. “Mail is the highlight of their days, and when they get these packages, it puts a big smile on their faces. The letters we receive from them say that when the packages arrive it’s like Christmas morning. They thank us for the recognition, for remembering them.”
The idea of Operation Shoebox New Jersey was based on Hirsch’s Eagle Scout project as a high school student in 1969–70. With the help of his troop, he collected donations and raised money by recycling newspapers to buy items and ship care packages to military in Vietnam. “I had friends who were drafted and overseas, so we shipped a lot of those care packages to those guys and built up pen pal relationships,” he says.
Three decades later, as the editor of The Somerset Messenger-Gazette newspaper, Hirsch was working on a feature about community initiatives and read about a woman who was hosting a 75th birthday party for her husband and asked guests to bring donations to send to soldiers overseas in lieu of gifts and about a woman who was going door-to-door to solicit donations to send to her brother, who was stationed overseas. “I’m reading these stories and I'm thinking ‘Geez, I did this all those years ago,’” Hirsch says.
Hirsch called a meeting of community leaders, and businessman Steve Kalafer pledged $5,000 to get the nonprofit started. “I knew then it would work because Somerset County has a long tradition of caring, volunteerism, compassion and giving,” Hirsch says.
In addition to toiletries and food, the packages contain cards from children. “That is the most important ingredient,” he says. “Soldiers and sailors remark on how seeing little kids’ stick figure drawings of soldiers with the American flag make them feel like they are home again.”
At any given time, Operation Shoebox New Jersey has a list of 100 to 200 men and women stationed overseas and has a master address for the Coast Guard. “If anybody has a relative or know someone who's been deployed and would appreciate an Operation Shoebox New Jersey care package, please send us their overseas address,” Hirsch says.
The community can help by dropping off donations of travel-size items—“so they can put them in their pockets when they are in the field,” Hirsch says—at the Hillsborough office, through tax-deductible financial donations to help cover shipping costs and by joining packing events. A holiday packing event is scheduled on December 4 in Hillsborough.
“You know the old adage that one person can make a difference? That applies so much to what we've done and what we've been able to accomplish over the years,” Hirsch says. “It's just been amazing how the community has stepped up and got behind our men and women in the military overseas.”
Learn more about how to help send care packages to troops overseas by visiting opshoeboxnj.org or contacting Hirsch at 908-255-4172 or opshbxnj@yahoo.com.