Saratoga News

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Photograph courtesy of the Adopt-a-Chaplain program

Troops serving overseas enjoy some powdered sugar doughnuts that arrived in the 1,000th box of goodies sent to the Middle East through the Adopt-a-Chaplain program.

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Veteran Gary Campbell packs boxes with treats for servicemen and women overseas

By Michele Leung

It's even more patriotic than singing about America's purple mountain majesties and waving the red, white and blue. Local residents have been sending troops in the Middle East a piece of home, at a time when they are surrounded by nothing but war, sand and extreme heat.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Saratoga resident Gary Campbell opens his garage to do some packing. For the past 15 months, he and other volunteers have been sending snacks and hard candy to chaplains stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. Their mission is to provide support to the chaplains, the men and women who comfort the soldiers, as part of the Adopt-a-Chaplain program, a Christian ministry that started here locally. Twice a week, volunteers fill up boxes with treats, then Campbell dutifully loads up his pickup truck for another trip to the post office.

"I'm bringing 26 boxes tomorrow. In the last four weeks, I brought 127," Campbell said, who himself served in the army from 1961 to 1963.

The Adopt-a-Chaplain program began a year and half ago when Daniel Hoebeke, who attends Los Gatos' Calvary Church, received an email from a lawyer friend who forwarded him a note from a chaplain stationed in Afghanistan. The chaplain was going through a crisis of faith, and the lawyer figured Hoebeke could comfort him since he was a "religious guy," Hoebeke said.

Hoebeke sent words of encouragement and asked what he could do to help. The chaplain wrote back, saying he was looking for a way to get the troops to see him. A box of candy would be a non-threatening reason for the soldiers to visit, the chaplain explained.

"I sent him a few boxes, and he told a couple of other chaplain buddies about me," Hoebeke said. "One chaplain became three, and three boxes became nine."

Hoebeke figured he was on to something. Through word of mouth, chaplains have been sending in special requests about what the soldiers would like, and little by little volunteers have also shown interest in the program.

"It started out by the fact that chaplains need support, too," Hoebeke said. "They are the people who provide counseling."

Chaplains are an appropriate channel to dole out good eats because they are closely in touch with the soldiers, Hoebeke said. To date, he is corresponding with about 20 chaplains.

"They will know where the needs are," he said.

The most popular request is beef jerky, while hotel toiletries, personal misters, quick-freezing liquid popsicles and energy bars have also been in heavy demand. Sometimes, small teddy bears and crayons get packed with the food so they can be given to the local children.

"We don't send any chocolate," Hoebeke said, who lives in San Jose. "With temperatures of 115 to 130 degrees, they end being little puddles. They like hard candy, movie DVDs and anything we can give them to keep them cool."

The packing crew uses flat rate boxes from the post office, and in about eight days soldiers are able to enjoy everything from insoles to disposable cameras. Many times, volunteers receive donated items before realizing they are exactly what the troops have been asking for, Hoebeke said. For example, the group received a donation of toothbrushes just as it learned the army dropped off a palette of toothpaste without toothbrushes. Ditto the rosary beads Hoebeke and his group received before they got in touch with Catholic chaplains.

"That's not a coincidence," said Los Gatos resident Frank Bergandi.

Bergandi has been the group's go-to guy whenever a chaplain has a special request. So far, he's been able to comply with a guitar, a pancake griddle, cymbals, volleyballs, baseball equipment and a microwave.

"We have not refused anything," Bergandi said.

He's more than happy to help out, and nothing, within reason, is too outrageous.

"We have so many 18- to 25-year-old men and women who are laying it all on the line," Bergandi said. "They made a decision to protect my liberty. This is the least I could do."

The crew recently mailed its 1,000th box, which was filled with powdered doughnuts. As part of the Flag Day observance in June, Calvary Church congregants brought cookies and doughnuts for the chaplains, enough to send off 60 boxes. Bergandi chuckled at the thought of soldiers devouring the doughnuts. "Powdered sugar doughnuts. That's the worst thing you can ingest."

He's not too far from the truth. Soldiers mailed back a picture of themselves with the 1,000th box, frosting their lips with the white sugar.

Organizers say there is no other program like Adopt-a-Chaplain. Two months ago, AmericaSupportsYou.com, the official support site of the Department of Defense, picked up its website. Consequently, the number of hits has been growing exponentially, and inquiries have been coming from around the country.

"People are calling us, saying 'how can we help?' It's exciting for us," Campbell said.

Schools in Phoenix and Illinois have partnered with the local group in amassing supplies and treats. Money to pay for postage has also been coming in. Campbell said he has been in touch with an Illinois resident who is giving up golfing so the greens fees could go to the troops.

But the greater Bay Area is not to be outdone. St. Dominic's Catholic Church in San Francisco has taken on Adopt-a-Chaplain as a project and is contributing goods. Then there's Vicki Hitzfeld, who recently drove an hour from San Leandro to Saratoga to help with the packing for the first time.

She said she found about the chaplain support group while surfing online and knew she had to lend a hand.

"My era is Vietnam," she said. She explained her family has had a long history of serving, with both her parents in World War II, and her former husband and her brother-in-law in Vietnam.

"Those guys need our support," she said.

Hitzfeld said she found Campbell and the six other volunteers working that day to be a friendly and neighborly group. On her first morning, she was filling out customs lists and was waiting for Campbell to show her how to stuff boxes.

Campbell's philosophy is that no space should go wasted. He showed how a pack of liquid popsicles fit snugly into a box. But there was still some space that could be put to good use. In go individual packets of hot sauce packed in snack-sized sandwich bags, which can be reused to remove sand from the soldiers' pockets.

"But see how there is a quarter inch left on the top?" Campbell said.

He throws in a few lollipops before he tapes up the box.

"It's fun to see how much you can stuff in a post office box," he said.

So far, he is averaging about 8 pounds a box.

The organizers say the constant feedback they receive is proof they are doing something right.

"We respond to what they really want most," Campbell said. "We're here to meet special needs."

All those who are volunteering with the project say their participation is not a political statement but simply a gesture of thanks.

"We do this mostly because of all that they're going through for us," Hoebeke said. "I don't care about what you think we're doing there. It's important that we love [those overseas] and support them."

Hoebeke and the others know they are on a torrid pace. It took 15 months to reach box number 1,000, but they expect to get to box 2,000 by Labor Day. Today, they are working on boxes 1,035-1,088. They have a goal to eventually rely on other groups to fill the routine requests.

"We can't do it ourselves," Bergandi said, adding service organizations such as the Kiwanis could become part of the picture someday. "Our goal is to handle 20 percent of the [daily] needs--sending energy bars, Crystal Light--and handling 100 percent of the special requests."

If there's a small-town feel to regularly sending toiletries and snacks to troops overseas, then Bergandi gladly welcomes the label.

"People at their root want to support other people," he said. "The support from Los Gatos and Saratoga proves they're great little towns."

For more information, visit www.adopt-a-chaplain.org.