Military supporters seek community help

When a community pulls together in pursuit of something greater, its pulse can span the globe.

Just ask Lubbockite Dona Nussbaum.

She and hundreds of local volunteers are seeking help with a program to send thousands of goodie-laden Christmas stockings to American military personnel overseas.

They've been working since April to stuff 3,300 stockings with CDs, DVDs, candy, pens, paper, toiletries and an assortment of other small slices of holiday cheer from back home in the States.

The destination: Kunsan Air Force Base in South Korea, a U.S. fighter jet outpost more than 6,000 miles from West Texas and home to more than 3,000 American troops.

Nussbaum, the project's organizer who started the program in 2007, stood in a room at Westminster Presbyterian Church one recent afternoon and gestured toward a dizzying array of donated items in boxes lining the walls and filling table space.

"It takes a lot of people to sort all of this," she said.

As this year's holiday season hits full swing, Nussbaum said, the group has begun its final push to recruit about 250 volunteers it will need Saturday to stuff, pack and ship the stockings at the church's Family Ministry Center.

Not only do the stockings include a variety of small items - like key chains, mini chess sets, travel-size bottles of shampoo, movies and candy - but tucked inside the stockings is a personal touch.

Each stocking contains at least one handwritten note from volunteers reminding troops that folks back home haven't forgotten their sacrifice.

"We just want to be a bright spot in their life," Nussbaum said. "We all want to reach out to these people over there protecting our country and serving a difficult mission."

The Plains Cotton Cooperative Association donated most of the denim for the stockings. The stockings' promotional items come

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