While grocery shopping, Tonya Eversole of Colerain Township looks for ways to spend more money. Not on herself, but on the 35 U.S. soldiers overseas who get weekly care packages from her.

        Six months ago, Ms. Eversole joined AdoptaPlatoon Soldier Support Effort, a group of citizens who send packages and letters to U.S. soldiers serving in foreign countries. Now she works as a full-time volunteer. She maintains the group's database of volunteers and military personnel contacts, and answers about 200 e-mails a day, many from people wanting to help troops stationed near Afghanistan.

Tonya Eversole packs boxes for the AdoptaPlatoon Soldier Support Effort (Enquirer photo) | ZOOM |

        Most of the troops AdoptaPlatoon supports are in Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. There are also troops whose locations are not divulged. Some of them may be in areas near Afghanistan, but there is no way of knowing, Ms. Eversole said.

        From a room dedicated to her adopted soldiers, Ms. Eversole sends packages that are filled with anything from coffee, apple cider and jelly beans to batteries, socks and homemade brownies.

        The three boxes Ms. Eversole sends a week each contain $9.50 worth of goods. The packages cost $30 more in postage, and all of the money comes out of her own pocket.

        A framed collage of handwritten and typed letters from soldiers who were stationed in Kosovo shows what they thought of her kindness.

        One anonymous soldier wrote: “I would like to know why you are doing this for strangers. It means a lot to the guys. Just curious.”

        Another wrote: “This is my third deployment, and the first one where someone outside my family has taken time to care about a soldier. Thank you.”

        Since Sept. 11, AdoptaPlatoon's number of volunteers has grown dramatically, and the number of Platoon Moms, who have a greater responsibility than someone who adopts one soldier, has more than tripled.

        AdoptaPlatoon was started in 1998 by a Texas woman, Ida Hagg of Rio Hondo, whose son was stationed in the Army at Camp Dobol in Bosnia. Living in tents, his platoon didn't have access to any place they could buy personal hygiene items or snack foods.

        “When he (her son) got his first opportunity to call home he said about nine out of his platoon of 40 got no mail,” Ms. Hagg said. “They do not expect ever to receive anything.”

        Her son asked her to send letters of cheer and packs of gum.

        “I started sending as much cheer to those nine that I could,” Ms. Hagg said. “After a while I got angry there were nine soldiers in this platoon that our nation did not support. I decided to use the Internet to see if I could find nine mothers who would embrace a soldier each.”

        It took her five days to find the first nine volunteers.

        Two years later, more than 10,000 soldiers had been adopted by people from around the nation. There has not been enough time to update how many AdoptaPlatoon has helped in the last year, Ms. Hagg said.

        Ms. Eversole said almost every letter she gets back asks the same question: “Why do you do this for someone you don't know?”

        How could she not? Ms. Eversole asks, because many in her family are active in the military.

        She has two sons and a daughter-in-law in the Marine Corps, a nephew who just finished his training for the Army, and a husband who also served in the Marines. Before her sons graduated high school she spent six years volunteering her time for their ROTC units at Colerain and Northwest high schools.

        AdoptaPlatoon has temporarily stopped accepting new volunteers because of the recent anthrax attacks, Ms. Hagg said. Though security checks have been performed on every volunteer since the beginning of the program, the group is exploring ways to tighten security.

        AdoptaPlatoon is accepting information from people who would like to volunteer in the future, Ms. Hagg said.

        Carolyn vanBuskirk of Covington said she lives on a limited income and can't afford to send frequent packages to the six soldiers she has adopted in the past year.

        She is a dedicated letter writer, but manages to send hard candy, PopTarts or cocoa sometimes.

        “I figured if these people put their lives on the line for us, the least we could do is send them a little encouragement,” Ms. vanBuskirk said.

        For more information, visit www.adoptaplatoon.org.

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