Pam Proctor, Peggy Pitta, Michele Scales, Margy Kulczycki, Gail Reams, and Donna Presley. PHOTO BY JOSHUA KODIS

Anyone who has ever been away from home for an extended period of time knows how heartwarming it is to get a care package filled with goodies. That feeling is tenfold for the men and women deployed to far off places in service to our country.

From Oct. 15 to Dec. 15, you make that happen through the 18th annual Holidays for Heroes drive, coordinated by the nonprofit Military Moms Prayer Group. Tens of thousands of care packages have been sent to our troops since fall 2006, when the program was created.

Four of the women who founded Military Moms in August 2006 – Linda Colontrelle, Margy Kulczycki, Pam Proctor and Gail Reams – had sons who graduated from Saint Edward’s School, Class of 1998. Michele Scales, the fifth founding member, was a teacher at St. Edward’s.

After graduation, Danny Colontrelle went to West Point, Garrett Kulczycki to Annapolis, Mike Proctor to Amherst College and Scott Reams to Rollins College. Colontrelle and Kulczycki would then serve in the Army and Navy, respectively, while Reams and Proctor joined the Marine Corps.

“When they went off to college, there were really no wars going on. Their senior year in college is when 9/11 went down. And so, by the time 2006 rolled around, the Iraq War was in full force,” Pam Proctor explained, adding that their sons were then either in Iraq or due to deploy there.

Linda Colontrelle had the idea to send care packages to their sons’ units. Some 450 boxes were sent that first year; that number increased to about 2,000 in recent years.

“The idea was that they would get all these packages and then share them with people who didn’t have any. And the response was just so great that we continued every year,” Proctor recalls.

“You know, we don’t know the impact of these. They get handed out far and wide to people, even to foreign units and the NATO forces. It’s just spread,” she said.

Air Force Tech Sgt. Bryce Saint-Vincent, a Vero Beach High School graduate deployed to Germany and now South Korea, is among those who have sent notes of appreciation, writing: “We are grateful for the prayers and support provided by the community and the Military Moms Prayer Group. We especially appreciate the support in the form of the care packages that are sent. There’s not a single package that comes to my team that doesn’t have something in it that everybody wants, and it always turns out that everything in the package at least somebody wants. Nothing goes to waste, and everybody walks away happy. Thank you.”

Mailing kits – flat-rate boxes with information on packing, shipping and suggested items – can be picked up at 30 venues around town. Once filled, people pay $20 to ship them from Postal Connections – which has a list of names the Moms compile – the post office, or any other authorized shipper.

“It’s a total community effort,” said Proctor. “And then there are groups like Sheila Marshall at the Moorings. I think this is her 13th year organizing her friends to donate things and send kits out to our list of names. Some people do it as a Christmas thing with their families.

Others have their business or organizations do it.”

It’s not just the holidays; packages from home are welcomed by the troops anytime. Kits are available year round from Postal Connections in Vero Beach.

“We make it easy for people to get it done and they love it. It’s a great, great way to bring the community together. It’s been an incredible program,” said Proctor.

The Military Moms Prayer Group, open to everyone, meets from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Christ Church Vero Beach.

“We always like to say any mom or anyone with a mom’s heart for the troops can join us. We have names of people who are deployed, and we pray for them every week,” said Proctor.

For details on Holidays for Heroes or Military Moms, visit MilitaryMoms
PrayerGroup.com.

Photos by Joshua Kodis