Nevada Angels prepare over 2000 Christmas stockings for deployed troops

Soldiers' Angel Ann Marie Bassing sent these photos of over 100 volunteers putting together and shipping about 2300 Christmas stockings this past weekend. It's the result of almost 6 months' work, including making the stockings and raising donations for the contents and shipping.

Candy, hot chocolate paks, socks, and other goodies staged for volunteers to fill the stockings.

Shipping boxes are also staged and ready in a hallway.



The volunteers build assembly lines in several rooms to fill the stockings.

Cards are written...



Shipping boxes are filled and sealed...

...and then it's on to the post office.

Ann Marie and all of us at Soldiers' Angels would like to thank the following people and groups for their generous support:

Dave Shaffer of Shaffer Reality, Las Vegas, NV, for providing the office building where all this took place,
Jody Shervanick,
the Key Clubs of Sierra Vista, Coronado and Cimmeron,
Green Valley High School,
the Basic & Liberty High School R.O.T.C.s,
United Health Care,
Bartlett Elementary School,
Clark County Retired Teachers,
Southern Nevada Retired Teachers,
Embarq,
Southwest Bank,
and the ladies of the Las Vegas Valley who hand made all of the stockings.

As Ann Marie said, "It was a lot of work, but I just felt it needed to be done. If there is a smile on the face of a deployed service member for a fraction of a second, it was all worth it."

I've gotten to know my fellow New Jersey native Ann Marie a bit over the years, and when she says something "needs to be done", it gets done!

THANK YOU AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!