Brooksby residents help send presents to troops

PEABODY – When your goal is to send over 15,000 presents this coming holiday season, there’s no better time to start wrapping than now. And that’s just what residents of Brooksby Village did this Saturday.Over 250 residents came out to help the efforts of Operation Troop Support, the Danvers-based non-profit organization dedicated to providing much-needed comforts of home to U.S. troops serving in the Middle East.From 10 a.m.-1 p.m., residents sat at tables in the McIntosh Catering Room and boxed up goodies from snacks to socks, wrapped them in festive paper, and signed, sealed and delivered over 1,000 holiday cards.This was the second year in a row that the retirement community participated in the holiday gift-wrap. Last year, residents wrapped 1,500 gifts. This year, they more than doubled that amount with a total of 3,855.”Our goal was to get snacks to them that fit in their side pant pockets and just the toiletries that you need,” said Mary Landry of Brooksby’s Community Resources department.Landry said the community has been very active with Operation Troop Support since a resident, whose daughter was a military nurse overseas, first approached her with the idea over a year ago.”The resident’s daughter called crying because she said (troops) didn’t have enough blood, clean sheets for cots, clean socks, snacks?” said Landry. “(The resident) said it was just a disaster.”Landry immediately began facilitating volunteer groups at Brooksby and working closely with Operation Troop Support.”It’s close to a lot of people’s hearts,” she said. “We have a lot of World War II veterans here, and also Korean and Vietnam War vets. And, we have residents and staff with loved ones who are serving in the Middle East currently. This is our way to be able to give some comfort to them.”Brooksby also supports the organization throughout the year with fundraising efforts, such as taking collections for postage costs and holding toiletry and food drives.Operation Troop Support sends nearly 150 packages each week to troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as those recovering in hospitals. For more information on how to get involved, log on to www.troopsupportusa.com.