Volunteers pack boxes for troops

Muffin Vallely has organized the mailing of care packages to United States troops for the last eight years, and as she and a crowd of volunteers prepared to make the first shipment of 2011, Vallely showed no signs of slowing down.

“You read too often of somebody having lost someone in war, and we want them to know we are always thinking about them and praying for them,” Vallely said.

Vallely and her husband Paul, a retired major general with the U.S. Army, started the box-packing effort in 2003 when their son, Army Pfc. Scott P. Vallely, was in boot camp.

After Scott died in 2004, the Vallelys set up a memorial fund in his honor. The fund helps finance the assembly and shipment of care packages two to three times a year. Part of the money raised by the fund also goes toward cash leadership awards for high school and college graduates who are entering military service.

For this round of packing, approximately 30 volunteers gathered to assemble at least five 14-by-14 inch boxes for each of the three units receiving the care packages.

One of those volunteers was Eric Wood, a local Boy Scout troop leader who is friends with the Vallelys.

“It’s a great cause to get stuff to the soldiers,” Wood said. “It doesn’t matter whether you believe in the war or don’t believe in the war, because these guys decided to serve for our country, even if they don’t support the decisions of our political leaders.”

The boxes were filled with a variety of food and toiletry items — such as hot chocolate, popcorn, candy, beef jerky, toothpaste, deodorant and shampoo — as well as Montana T-shirts.

Most of the volunteers helped with past box-packing efforts, and they knew the drill.

“We have a system,” Vallely said.

That includes packing several small boxes instead of a few large ones, which is ultimately more cost-effective.

“And the post office appreciates it too,” she said.

Before the group gathers to pack, Vallely sends shopping lists out to several volunteers, who then purchase the items needed to fill the boxes. The shoppers are later reimbursed by the memorial fund, but Vallely said many of them end up donating what they bought.

Those who would like to donate to the memorial fund can do so on the organization’s website, which can be found at http://soldiersmemorialfund.org. Donations can also be mailed to The Scott Vallely Soldiers Memorial Fun c/o Flathead Bank, PO Box 308, Bigfork, MT 59911.

People can also support the fund by purchasing flag-themed dog tags made by community member Lori Bunyea. The dog tags, which are decorated with Swarovski Austrian crystals, can be purchased on the memorial fund’s website.