Dear "Stockings For Soldiers" Friends:
THANK YOU to our wonderful Team Leaders and wonderful volunteers who worked so hard together to accomplish so much for our members of the military deployed all over the world. THANK YOU, to all our fabulous volunteers who helped us to have such a terrific 19th Year of sending our special stockings to our wonderful troops so they will know that the Great Folks in Delaware and all over America are thinking of them. THANKS so much everyone for all your donations, contributions, hard work, good will, kindness, patience, smiles, sense of humor and Volunteer Spirit. We ALL worked together and it was fabulous. We are so extremely grateful to the great folks of Acadia Realty Trust Corp who allowed us to work in such a fabulous space!! Yeay!!!
Our 19th Annual "Stockings For Soldiers" community project was a wonderful success. Despite a few obstacles, we were able to send almost 9,000 special stockings to our troops. We're so proud to know that so many of our brave members of the military will know how much we respect and appreciate all they are doing for our Great Country.
Our 2022 Official Stats:
Over 1,000 + Volunteer Elves - sent over 9,000 homemade Christmas stockings and our boxes weighed a total of 32,000 pounds. Our fabulous volunteers came from Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and surrounding areas and from ALL over America, great folks joined with us. In addition, we sent over 6,000 Star Packs for our troops and over 400 knitted hats. We also sent over 9,000 personal greeting cards and many hundreds of letters of appreciation from children from many, many schools.
We sent over 1,500 boxes, filled with all the great Goodies that you all donated for the stockings. This year, our stockings went to our troops in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Djibouti, Africa, United Arab Emirates, Poland, Lithuania, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, the US Border at towns in Texas, California, and Arizona. We sent our boxes to 42 different zip codes and supported 105 different groups who requested our stockings.
Our Stocking project was such a Team Effort. Each and every person has played a very important part in its success. We could not have succeeded without everyone's help. Sincere Thanks go to all our 1,000+ kind and generous local volunteers and our great friends who live far from here, but who have sent us their donations and contributed greatly to the success and completion of this community project. I appreciate everything that all of you did to work so hard, so quickly, so efficiently and so successfully. I know our troops are so grateful and were so happy to receive our Goodies. Because of our combined efforts, we were able to touch the hearts of almost Nine Thousand of our most precious young men and women who are bravely Serving their Country.
At the bottom of this post are a few of the notes of appreciation received back from our troops. All of their notes will be posted under the "Thank You's" section of our website.
At this time, I would like to mention just a few of our special Friends:
Please accept our deepest THANKS for each and every donation, contribution and good wish that we received from all of you. THANK YOU ...
Thank You so very much to the generous and wonderful owners of our working location in the Brandywine Town Center. We are very grateful to the terrific folks at The Acadia Realty Corp ♥ who allowed us to use their fabulous space for our project once again this year. Very Special THANKS to Ashley O., John D., Karalynn H., Debbie L., Dan C., Steve and their team for all their wonderful kindness to us.
Our sincere THANKS go to the wonderful and generous members of the Rotary Clubs of Delaware, Maryland, and West Chester. Their support has been invaluable for all these years. We are grateful to the Wilmington Kiwanis Club and the Elks Club in Sussex County.
Our sincere THANKS go to the wonderful Girl Scout and our Boy Scout volunteers. These terrific leaders have been so important to us because they are teaching their Scouts the importance of volunteering. Their enthusiasm, helpfulness and hard work are so much appreciated.
Our sincere THANKS go to the wonderful members of the RC Dupont American Legion Post # 18 of Claymont. These special friends made sure that our “Packing Dept.” ran smoothly and efficiently. They were the ones receiving the stockings and packing up all the boxes. They were invaluable in helping our stockings to get into the right boxes with their enthusiasm, helpfulness and hard work.
A special THANK YOU goes to WestPoint.Org for getting us started each year to contact our West Point deployed Grads. They also handle our online donations and we are so honored to be a part of their West Point family.
A special THANKS goes to Christine Kubik and in year's past, Dawn Peet, for their years of assisting us to contact the deployed members of the military from the National Guard from all over the US to be included in our project. This year, we supported deployed National Guard troops from many states.
Our sincere THANKS go to the wonderful State Office of Volunteerism (SOV) and the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) and their Volunteer Delaware 50+ organization (formerly RSVP). This wonderful group of folks in all 3 Delaware counties set up collection boxes at many locations for our project. We are grateful to Ann Gorrin and her great Team in Sussex County and the teams in New Castle and Kent counties for all their great assistance. They allowed so many people to make so many donations, and to feel like they were participating with something special for our U.S. Service Members. So many wonderful volunteers made a tremendous amount of donations. It was such an important part of project. In addition, we had so many wonderful Sussex Country residents who worked so hard for our troops. Special THANKS to Marianne & Carl Sheran and T.J. Healy for spearheading so many collection drives. Thanks also to the Village Improvement Association of Rehoboth Beach, Roberta Bass and her fabulous and generous family members, our great Millsboro friends and Maureen Walker and the Millville-By-The-Sea Community for all their fabulous donations as well as so many new friends who helped us so much. Special THANKS also to Jay and the wonderful members of "Charity Crossing". They helped us so may evenings and we really appreciated their assistance.
Our sincere THANKS go to over 1,000+ hard working volunteers who came to our Stocking Store to donate their time, purchase Goodies for our troops, donate needed funds and who brought a cheerful, happy-to-help attitude. Thank You to all these new friends and to our dedicated Team Leaders who maintained the continuity needed throughout the week and who worked so hard to keep this community project going. Our community endeavor was tremendously successful because friendly folks of like-minded attitudes all worked together, beautifully, to achieve such a high level of success and cooperation.
My deepest THANKS to our Wonderful Team Leaders for making everything look so "easy". They are so very important to the success of our project and we are so grateful for their kind hearts and dedication to out members of the military. Here is our Winning Team:
| Lyman Brenner | Jenn Gaudino |
| Jane & Dave Putscher | Peg & Jon Stewart |
| Arthur Travis | Richard Browne |
| Sheila Buckley | Mona Konig |
| Barbara Schinchirimini | Tom VanDuyne |
| Matt Carr | Denise & Marissa Lazar |
| Annette Long | Marianne & Carl Sheran |
| Maria Walueff | Bonnie Costas |
| Lori Miller | Peter Dirga |
| Lisa McCarley | Bruce Shumway |
| Carol Wootten | Kim Donahue |
| Pam Yarborough | Anita Sterling |
| Sandy & Fury Fecondo | Lorraine Fecondo |
| Cathy Morgan | Kathie Simmons |
| Sam Youse | Donna & Samantha Pelletier |
| Diane Zutz-Cummings | Barbara Spall |
| The Chandler Family | Sarah & Alec Foster |
| Rich & Holly Osman | Howard Sholl |
| Paul Cummings |
A Big Welcome to our new 2022 Team Leaders: Shannon & Audrey Frazier, Rae Ann, Emma, and Dylan Blankenship, Danielle Kelly, Kara Kelly, and Lynn Galloway.
2022 - The proud accomplishments of our volunteers include:
- We received over 9,000 beautifully home sewn stockings.
- We received over 400 beautifully hand knitted hats.
- We received over 9,000 personal greeting cards to go with each stocking.
- We received over 800+ letters of support for the troops from school children.
- We received over 6,000+ packets of "Snowman's Soup" (hot cocoa) from our great friends at Bank Of America. THANK YOU, Barbara O. and your wonderful team.
- We received over 10,000 decks of playing cards from Caesar's Casino in Atlantic City, NJ.
- We received over 10,000 Ziploc bags to mail our stockings from The Castle Bag Company
- We received over 9,275 pairs of socks from the great Bombas Company. Wow!!
- We received thousands of toothbrushes, toothpaste from our great Dental community. Special Thanks to Benco Dental, Carla Rawheiser and Progressive Dental, Patterson Dental Supplies, Oral Healthcare of DE, and Alpine and Raffeto, Dr. Ben Parenti and many, many Dental offices.
- We received great assistance from our printing community. Special Thanks to Kathie Simmons, Dawn Doherty, Steve Donze of Brandywine Drumlabels and Aztec Printing and Design.
- We received over 9,000 paperback books from the Friends of Hockessin Library, Avon Grove Lions Club, Kennett Square Resale Book Shop, All Around Books, many friends in Lewes, DE, Foxfield Residents and many others
- We received over 6,000+ Star Packs for our troops from Annette Long, Lorraine Fecondo, Tina Macrone & family. We thank the Holy Rosary Boy Scout Troop 61 for the proper disposal of the U.S. flags that cannot be flown anymore. We are tremendously grateful to the Gettysburg Flag Company of New York for their donations of so many special US flags so we could make more Star Packs. See our website for more information on helping us to make our Star Packs.
- We received tons of Halloween candy from Dr. Ron Briglia & many other wonderful groups
- We received 1,000 beautiful homemade stockings from our great friends at Cokesbury Village with the wonderful leadership of Ginni Rothrock, Marian S. and their team.
- We received 1,000 beautiful from Shirley Pierce and the great sewing team at LadyBug Quilt Guild.
- We received so many donations from the great families of Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, under the leadership of Joanna and Jenna. Yeay – such great friends.
- We received tons of donated items and extra funds from all the great students and staff from so many schools. We especially appreciate those students who came over to work with us while they received credit through their Community Service programs.
- We received many tons of donated items from our great friends at RSVP, Delaware Volunteers 50+ from Sussex County, Kent County and New Castle County. Thank You to Ann Gorrin and all their great Assistant Elves for their invaluable assistance.
- We received over 32,000 pounds of Goodies from many, many schools, churches, synagogues, community groups, exercise groups, senior centers, libraries, Rotary Clubs, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and many new friends from all over the U.S.
- We enjoyed working with over 1,000+ volunteers who came by to help us at our "Stocking Store."
- Special Thanks to Paul Cummings and the Del Monte Company, and Matt Carr and his team for bringing us over 1,500 empty Apple boxes, which allowed us to mail our stockings. Special Thanks always to Frannie and the WestRock Company for giving us their great Corn Flakes boxes that we are still using. Such great friends!!
- Special Thanks to the wonderful members of the American Legion Post 18 who took care of the Packing of the stockings into the boxes. Thank You Lisa, Peter, Lyman and Thanks to Matt, Tom, Troy and all their team.
- Special Thanks to Bank of America for all their wonderful contributions and donations. Especially to our assitant elf: Barbara J. Oliphant, Damodar, Anand, Jane, Terri, and Vijay and their great BOA associates for donating over 6,000+ packets of Snowman Soup. So great!!! Wow...
- Special Thanks to so many students who wrote such sweet and thoughtful letters to our troops. So many students helped but a special Thank you to the students and staff of Lancashire Elementary and our great friend Susie Murdock for her leadership. Thank You to Sarah Foster and her students at Forwood Elementary.
- Super Special Thanks to Mr. Fred Smith, President of FedEx and his wonderful Team of Heather and Hillary for sending us three FedEx trucks to carry our 752 boxes to Chicago and our 300 boxes to the US border. We ran into a postage problem if we mailed our boxes from Delaware, so we now send our boxes directly to the APO post office in Chicago. We are so very grateful for their kindness and great assistance. THANKS to our FedEx drivers. THANKS also to Brenda and her team at the Post Office in Chicago who took excellent care of our boxes when they arrived.
- THANK YOU to the great folks at Endicia.com who took such great care of us and helped with our Custom Form procedures. Thanks to Alan B. and David W. We're very grateful.
- Special Thanks to Dave P. who supervised our Daytime Donation Hours. So great of him.
- Special Thanks to Tom, Matt, Will, Ben, Steve, Troy, the great US Veterans from Amazon in Middletown and all the volunteers for helping to organize and load the FedEx trucks and to those friends who closed the boxes and carried them to the waiting FedEx trucks.
- A special Thank You to Bumpers & Company, John Mager and Doug Kook, our wonderful accountants who help us to maintain our 501.c.3 nonprofit Delaware corporation status. Special Thanks to our long time Team Leader, Cathy Morgan, who does such a great job as our fabulous bookkeeper.
- A special Thank You to Ret. Gen. Frank Ianni, who brought over his microphone and speaker so I could be heard by all our great volunteers. Special Thanks to the kind gentleman who also donated a megaphone for me. So nice!!!
- A Very Special Thanks to ALL the volunteers who came over each night to lend a hand. We couldn't accomplish all we did without everyone's great help. We can't say THANK YOU enough.
Here are just a few of the first notes from our deployed troops that we just received:
Ms. Judy Travis and fellow "Elves"
Judy!
Thank you
I’m a Blackhawk Pilot deployed to the Middle East! I got your care package today. I’m 33 and have never had a stocking before. I’m crying. Thank you for making me feel so special!
VR,
2LT Meagan O.
Thank you and God bless!
 |
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Mrs. Judy Travis,
My name is CPT Preston Q. - I am a deployed Soldier in the US Army that received one of the care packages made by your team of ELVES.
I wanted to extend a thank-you to Girl Scout Troop 312 of New Castle, Delaware from me and the Soldiers of my unit - all of whom received a package. They were kind gifts for us so far from home. I personally laughed at the joke written in my package - "Why does Santa go down the chimney on Christmas? Because it soots him!" Whoever wrote it has VERY good cursive!
Thank you again, best wishes to you and your teams, and Happy Holidays!
Preston Q.
Judy Travis and all,
Greetings from overseas! Thank you for the thoughtfulness and cheer you have brought to many here. The messages and beauty will remain with us throughout the year. I am especially fond of the individual expressions, and warmth conveyed throughout, the care is brightly sincere. Thank you for passing on the light.
V/R and best,
Elizabeth B.
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My son received this package today. This is the 2nd Christmas he’ll miss in 3 years. He has a wife and a 2-year-old at home.
To know that people have not forgotten our troops, gives me faith in our country. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. Thank you again, and God Bless America! Donald’s Dad |
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This is a special note from last year:
Good morning Judy Travis,
I wanted to reach out and express my gratitude for you and all of those who helped put together the Christmas Stockings for my soldiers. Every soldier was ecstatic to receive a personal stocking which had their name on it. For many soldiers, this was the only gift they received, and it meant so much to them. Please share with all of those involved in this wonderful organization you have, that we appreciate all that you do to support us oversees. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and may God continue to bless you all!
Very Respectfully, Charles B., CPT, AV, HHC Commander, 1-10 ARB
Again, this is a Special note from a few years ago:
"... Any little act of kindness goes a long way and we all greatly appreciate you (all) and all of the time and effort you put into making these packages. I personally had grown up in Foster Care and I have never had a stocking before let alone one with my name on it. My appreciation to you (all) can not be explained in words. My wife had sent a package but it will not be here before Christmas. I am excited now that I have something that I can open on Christmas. Thank you..." J.G.
Hello Again, Stockings For Soldiers FRIENDS:
Be sure to look for all our troop photos & their notes to us under our "Thank You's" menu.
It has been such a wonderful honor for me to coordinate this great project and to work with so many exceptionally great folks. Thank You
to all our volunteers who have helped us to send some special Hugs and Smiles to our troops deployed all over the world, proudly representing America. They all know that it is not about candy, cookies or Beanie Babies, it's about what's in your hearts. Thank You, everyone, for all your continued support.
With much appreciation and gratitude and hope to see you all next year.
Judy
Judy Travis
Project Founder & Coordinator
STOCKINGS FOR SOLDIERS - Delaware, Inc.
501.c.3 Tax ID # 27-0604668
MAILING ADDRESS:
1911 Foulk Road
Wilmington, DE 19810
A New deadline to receive your beautiful homemade stockings:
Your stockings are sooo beautiful!!!
A special THANK YOU to all our amazing sewing volunteers. YES - Please be sure to sew stockings for us in 2023. Our supplies are so low, we really need your magnificent home sewn stockings. PLEASE send them to us as early as you can, after October 9th, 2023.
We need to receive the stockings before Oct. 20th 2023.
Please mail ALL packages to: Stockings For Soldiers, 1911 Foulk Road, Wilmington, DE 19810
Any stockings received in late November will have to be stored for the following year. We hope you all will remember to follow our request to make the finished stockings 15" high by 9" wide, using the same cotton only fabric on both sides and using only plain felt for the cuff, so they can fit into a 2 gallon zip lock bag. Please measure your old patterns. THANKS so much.
We will be sending support to our troops as long as they are deployed in Service to America.
And we hope you will remember, for some of these troops, our personalized stocking was the only gift they received for Christmas.
Please remember to keep our troops in your thoughts & prayers
THANK YOU, Everyone!!! See you in October 2023
Judy
