Moon Student Sends Care Packages to Afghanistan

For your average Marine, a few perks come with the job: food, shelter, dental care and several sets of clothes.

 But there are some things they don't always get: baby wipes, shampoo, body lotion, foot powder, toothpaste, deodorant, and breath mints. For boots on the ground, those little things can make all the difference.

 Alexis Solt, a 17-year-old senior at , decided to do something about this. When her brother was deployed to Afghanistan on Nov. 5, 2010, Solt learned that some items – including simple toiletries – often run out. So she decided to collect donations from Moon residents and dispatch them to her brother’s platoon.

 “I’m sending all those things that we wouldn’t think they’d need, but they do need,” Solt said.

To inform her collection, Solt went to Marineparents.com, a website dedicated to troop support.

“We got the list [of needed products] off of that website,” Solt said, as well as instructions for packaging and sending them.

As the U.S. military continues to work in Afghanistan – an occupation now in its ninth year – an entire culture of donation-based care packages has grown on the U.S. homefront. Such websites as Marineparents.com make the process of packing and shipping items as streamlined as possible. Guests are also encouraged to “connect and share” about their experiences as military families.

Solt describes herself as “not the most organized person,” but her process was meticulous. She sent formal letters to local businesses, asking for space to leave donation bins. She nailed down five locations, including the Elks Lodge of Coraopolis, the  and the local Motel 6. The bins are actually large boxes obtained from U-Haul.

Using instructions she found on the Marineparents website, Solt has been assembling personalized boxes for service personnel overseas – specifically in her brother’s unit. Each package, she said, is a little larger than a shoebox, and she uses flat-rate boxes from the local post office. She hopes to reach her goal of 120-150 boxes.

 “I was going every week and seeing if they were full,” Solt said. She has set a deadline for Feb. 11, because no one is certain when the platoon will finish its tour of duty – possibly May, possibly August.

Until starting this project, Solt was a stranger to volunteering and public service. She has mixed feelings about its results.

 “I feel proud,” Solt said. “But it’s very stressful. I’m really shy. I really had to face my fears. It started off really bad, actually. I didn’t think I was going to succeed. People don’t really care what our soldiers are doing. People don’t realize that they’re risking their lives every day.”

 Solt will soon be busy with other plans: She has been accepted to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and plans to attend in the fall, when she will study to become a pastry chef.

But the experience has had an impact.

“If [my brother] happened to get sent over again,” Solt said, “I would probably do it again.”