Hard-working Lakeside volunteer helps overseas troops know they're remembered

Donna Chase stood over a table covered in magazines.

Every title and genre imaginable was neatly sorted.

Behind her sat a pile of large postal boxes filled with an assortment of 40 magazines, just waiting for postage before they could be sent overseas to American troops.

Chase has been sending boxes of magazines to deployed U.S. troops for seven years. It was an operation that started in her house and took over her garage then relocated to the Lakeside Mercantile in January. Recently she received approval to make Magazines for Troops a certified non-profit.

Chase hopes by becoming a nonprofit they will be able to find a volunteer who is familiar with the grant-writing process, and start getting funding from other sources.

“We’re hoping that will open some doors,” she said.

Magazines for Troops relies completely on donations. Magazines can be dropped off around the Flathead Valley for Chase and volunteers to sort through and package. A shortage of magazines is never an issue, but cash for shipping the boxes is.

“The postage is what holds everything up,” Chase said.

It costs $12.35 to ship one box of magazines to a U.S. military base, so it can then be sent on to overseas troops.

Since launching the Magazines for Troops website in 2010 Chase and volunteers have served almost 1,000 troops.

Ideally they would send a box of magazines to each troop on their mailing list every month, but that doesn’t always happen. Often the funding isn’t there.

Chase generally waits until there is the postage for 100 boxes before loading them up and sending them off. Certain magazine titles, like Sports Illustrated, get outdated if a box sits in Lakeside too long before being shipped. Relying on donations for shipping fees, Chase never knows when they’ll be able to ship. Currently they have 33 filled boxes waiting to be shipped. To make it a full shipment, they need about $2,500.

“When we have it we ship, and when we don’t, we don’t,” she said.

When Chase began sending packages overseas, she never thought Magazines for Troops would grow the way it has.

It started when she and her husband Doug “adopted a soldier” through a program run by a Bigfork woman. They began sending care packages to the soldier and his platoon, and learned they were in need of reading material.

Chase enjoyed sending those packages, and when the platoon came home, she felt a void. So she looked for other troops to send packages of magazines to.

“We didn’t set out to do it,” she said. “It just kept getting bigger and bigger.”

It also appears that though volunteers all over the country collect things to send to troops, no one else is sending reading material.

“No one else is doing this and that kind of blew me away,” Chase said.

Chase is in the Mercantile every day, sorting through magazines so they don’t behind. Though she has help from other loyal volunteers around, sometimes Chase starts to feel overwhelmed. It’s the pictures, notes and e-mails she’ll receive from troops that inspires her.

“When the e-mail comes, it’s my way of knowing, okay, take a breath and keep going.”

She said that’s not just getting reading material that means something to the troops, it’s getting something from home, and being reminded that people are still thinking about them.

“As long as they’re there and want reading material, we’ll keep doing this,” she said.

Donations can sent to Magazines for Troops, Box 909, Lakeside, MT 59922 or made via PayPal on www.magazinesfortroops.com.

Interested parties are also encouraged to “adopt a box,” donating the postage for one box every month.

“It’s an affordable way to reach a lot of troops over there,” Chase said.

Interested volunteers can contact Donna through the website or call 406-261-9408.

Magazines can be dropped off at the post office in Lakeside and the West Shore Library.