The nine third-grade girls that make up Brownie Troop 1084 are already thinking of Christmas as early as now. As part of a community service and global awareness projects, the girls (all of whom are students at Royal View Elementary School in North Royalton) will be participating in “Trees for the Troops.”
Troop Leader Victoria Krass learned of the Christmas tree program during a pajama collection last Christmas. The program is a project of the AT&T Pioneers, a volunteer network.
The Brownies have already collected 40 plastic miniature Christmas trees all ready to be decorated and mailed to military troops. Now they need volunteers to help decorate the 2-foot tall trees.
Kress explained, “After 9/11 and when our military first entered these regions, there were yellow ribbons on cars and people expressing their support. Now we are in the slow grind and the fanfare has settled. This is when our military troops and their loved ones really need our support.”
According to Kress, the trees are free to residents. Postage will also be handled by AT&T Pioneers. All that needs to be done is to decorate the trees with themes such as patriotism, Christmas, sports or nautical. Decorations must be small, non-breakable and non-edible. Ornaments must be firmly attached, preferably with a hot glue gun. Each decorated tree must be placed in a tall, kitchen drawstring bag, which does not need to be tied shut as each tree will be inspected before shipping.
Trees must be collected by September 22 as it takes several weeks for them to be shipped and to arrive overseas.
The Brownies are also collecting comfort items such as lip balm, deodorant, razors, shaving cream, cough drops, bug spray, playing cards and food such as beef jerky, cookies, cereal bars and microwave popcorn.
Collection boxes are set up in the front office of Royal View Elementary School.
