It is difficult to maneuver from Mary Hacker's front door through her living room and dining room. Items cover the floor, chairs, couches and tables. Homemade signs of thanks and good wishes are draped over boxes of school supplies. Costco-size containers of liquid soap and toilet paper line the wall. Cases of Girl Scout cookies fill the area beneath her dining room table.
"We had troops from Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William collecting boxes for us," Hacker said. "The Scouts would simply ask people if they wanted to buy a box of cookies for the troops."
The founder of Operation Pinecone, a nonprofit organization that assembles care packages for troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been hard at work this cookie season, trying to give soldiers in the Middle East a little taste of home. So far 3,312 boxes of cookies have been donated by local Scout troops.
"It is overwhelming," Hacker said.
In addition to Girl Scout cookies, Hacker and her volunteers recently sent out Easter packages to the troops. On March 28, however, Hacker and volunteer, Jan Belz, were hard at work putting together one last batch of Easter packages.
"We just heard that the Leesburg unit arrived in Iraq," she said. "So we want to try and get these out to them today so they have a little something."
While most care packages for the troops are sent throughout the
Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, Operation Pinecone is busy year round, trying to send something to the troops in the almost 15 units they supply.
"The mail is moving a lot faster now because people aren't sending as many things," Hacker said. Just last week, Hacker sent out 12 large boxes to units in the Middle East.
"Word is spreading and we're getting more and more volunteers," she said.
But with more volunteers and larger donations, the cost of sending packages to the troops is also on the rise. It cost $452 to send the last shipment of 12 boxes.
To help pay for the cost of sending the care packages, Operation Pinecone is hosting its first big fund-raiser, a golf tournament, Saturday, April 14, at the South Riding Golf Club.
"All of the money we raise will help pay for postage," Hacker said.
The tournament, which will begin at 1 p.m., still needs additional players, Hacker said, so she has extended the registration deadline until Monday, April 9.
In addition to golf, the tournament will have a raffle, including items such as gift certificates from Glory Days and the grand prize of a six-night vacation at the Laterra World Golf Hall of Fame Resort in St. Augustine, Fla. Local businesses have also been able to donate to the organization by sponsoring one of the tournament's holes. There are still a lot of opportunities for people to get involved, Hacker said.
"It has taken a lot of pounding the pavement," she said. "But I think it is coming together."
To learn more about the golf tournament or to sign up to play, visit www.operationpinecone.org.
— Erika Jacobson