NEWMAN LAKE, Wash.-- A local man on a mission to send hundreds of care packages to troops overseas got an early Christmas surprise. Thanks to the generosity of our viewers, he will be able to help more people than he ever expected.
As soon as our story aired on Wednesday, Steven Ward was overwhelmed with the amount of people wanting to help pay for postage. He says all the support will get the packages to the troops in Afghanistan just in time for Christmas.
You may think he’s a bit crazy to bring 200 boxes to the Post Office the week before Christmas, but Steven Ward says he is on a mission to deliver a little taste of home to our overseas troops.
“I just felt it was important to reach out to them and let them know there are people at home that really care,” Ward said.
Ward says he faced a dilemma bigger than his pile of boxes; he didn’t have the $3,000 dollars needed to ship all the boxes. But after KREM 2 shared his story earlier this week, the community rushed to help.
Ward says the response was overwhelming. In one day, community members donated $1,200 dollars in cash as well as some additional items to Ward’s cause.
Ward says he is now able to ship all the care packages overseas in time for Christmas. He says the last obstacle is being patient enough to process them all. He says it will take about 6 hours to process all of the packages.
