The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee at Washington and Lee is working with groups across campus and within the community to assemble and send 500 care packages to soldiers in Afghanistan.

Rolf Piranian, the men’s head soccer coach, launched the first soldier care package drive three years ago. Under the supervision of SAAC, Washington and Lee collected items for 200 soldiers in the HHC First Brigade, Special Troops Battalion of the 82nd Airborne.  This brigade has since returned to the United States.

This year, SAAC has taken on a heftier challenge of organizing the drive to collect items for the 468 soldiers of the Blackhawk Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division. 

“We were asked if we were able to sponsor a Battalion made up of five companies, thus doubling our effort from years past,” said Sarah Simpson, captain of the women’s swim team and the SAAC co-chair of the Package Committee. “We discussed the logistical issues associated with taking on nearly 500 soldiers instead of our usual 200, but in the end decided that it would not be right to send care packages to only half of the Battalion.  We realized that there were several avenues that had not been tapped in the past. We knew that in order to be able to provide items to 486 men and women, we needed to realize every donation source possible.”

SAAC has not only involved other Washington and Lee student-athletes but also has mobilized the community. Each varsity team is responsible for accruing a large amount of a particular item for the care packages. Based on suggestions from the soldiers, the packages will include such items as magazines, books, lip balm, powdered drink mixes, nonperishable snacks, razors, and much more. Some teams asked members to bring a single item, while others designated one member to purchase everything in bulk. 

For example, Emily Leary, SAAC member and soccer goalie, bought 125 tubes of travel toothpaste for the women’s soccer donation.  “It takes around 17 minutes to u-scan 125 travel toothpastes,” she said. “Let's just say I didn’t make friends in the checkout line at Walmart. Nonetheless, knowing someone halfway across the world would appreciate this more than I can imagine made it all worthwhile.”

The community has stepped in to help as well. Local dentists donated 600 toothbrushes, students at the elementary schools wrote letters for the soldiers, and professors collected toothpaste and crackers. Notably, longtime university employee Thomas Bane, known as “Baner” by generations of students, donated 486 copies of his book Family and Honor. 

“The Bane family donation was an unexpected and wonderful surprise,” said Sallie Armstrong, secretary of SAAC and captain of the field hockey and track and field teams.  “This is a great addition to the boxes because the soldiers can get a better idea of what our community is like and the sense of honor we have here.”  

Work remains to be done, though. The cost of shipping alone will be $6,000. SAAC has collected about $2,000 with donations from community members, students and parents. The Washington and Lee athletics department has agreed to use various resources to make up the difference between contributions and shipping costs.

Care packages will be assembled today and the SAAC plans to ship them by the end of next week so they will arrive by late November.

Simpson added, “All of these contributions have come as surprises to me, but prove that even though the economy has been better, at the end of the day people still care. That kind of selfless generosity has been so encouraging.”

Maggie Sutherland is a soccer student-athlete at Washington and Lee