EV Students Assemble Care Packages For National Guard

​Members of the Boots, Bits and Buckles 4H Club worked hard to create a memorable experience for the Veterans and audience in attendance at the Veteran’s Day Program held at Elkhorn Valley Schools this year.

After presenting the Local Veterans with their Quilts of Valor, the group offered up a challenge for the Elkhorn Valley Students so that they may also help local Veterans from Nebraska this Holiday Season. The EV CAREs Package Classroom Challenge was a competition which allowed Elkhorn Valley classrooms to donate snacks to be sent to Nebraska National Guard soldiers deployed to Afghanistan. The grand prize for the winning classes was a pizza party sponsored by the 4H Club.

The project was a huge success. Initially, the group expected to receive a few boxes of snacks to send overseas, however when 4H Leader, Dawn Nelson, arrived to receive the donated items, she found an entire pickup load of items to load up.

After doing an inventory of all the snacks, it was determined that there were enough items to provide each of the 35 deployed soldiers in the group with a large care package full of goodies.

The Boots, Bits and Buckles 4H'ers met on Saturday, December 3 to assemble the items in boxes to be shipped to Afghanistan. Each individual care package contained two cans of Chef Boyardee, two boxes of pop tarts, a large package of beef sticks, Mountain Man snacks, two macaroni and cheese packages, a can of chicken, two packages of sunflower seeds and a six pack of Hershey chocolate bars, a box of graham crackers and Marshmallows. Also included were letters, pictures and thank you’s from Elkhorn Valley students and Boots, Bits and Buckles Club members.

In addition to the individual care packages, the group also ended up with seven huge bulk boxes with more mac and cheese, Chef Boyardee, snacks, candy, Keurig k cups and big packages of soup for the group to distribute amongst themselves.

After the items were packaged up, American Legion Commander Don Carter transported the packages to the Nebraska National Guard in Lincoln on Monday, December 5. The items are currently in route to Afghanistan and will arrive to the service men and women just in time for the holidays.

This was a wonderful project that the students of Elkhorn Valley should be very proud of participating in.