Club prepares care packages for Issaquah’s women soldiers

By KATIE REGAN

Issaquah Reporter

The Issaquah Women’s Club is asking for your help with a project.

The members are putting together care packages to support Issaquah-area women serving overseas in the armed forces and are seeking names and military address.

Recruitment offices can’t release that information for confidentiality reasons.

“We just thought it would be a nice way to reconnect with people who are from Issaquah and are over there for us,” said Sandy Cobel, volunteer services chairperson for the club.

The Issaquah Women’s Club, founded in 1983, is an organization of local women gathered to make connections and help out in the community.

Cobel describes it as “a social group, but we do volunteer and charitable works within our community.”

The women host annual fundraisers to support the scholarships and charities they champion, and have raised as much as $16,000 at single events in the past. Scholarships go toward Issaquah High School senior girls, women in the Eastside Domestic Violence Program, and to helping children afford to go to summer camps.

They also organize monthly community service focuses; the care packages are the February project.

This is the second year the club has sent the care packages.

“We’re sending all kinds of feminine things. The army doesn’t really provide a lot of products geared toward women,” Cobel said.

The packages will include practical items such as combs, brushes, facial cleansers, sports bras and personal hygiene items, as well as the fun stuff: DVDs, novels, stationary, and art supplies.

“Anything with a feminine touch,” she said.

The Women’s Club will also be writing letters to the soldiers and sending cards, which Cobel said are oftentimes the most important item.

“These women are so grateful for anything, and they’ve said that what means the most to them is the letter, and knowing that someone cares and they aren’t forgotten,” she said.

The club plans on sending 15 to 20 packages – though will send more depending on how many names are received – funded completely out of pocket and through member donations.

“(The soldiers) never know when they’re going to get something, so it really brightens their day when they come,” Cobel said.

Members began shopping for care package items this week, and will continue through February.

Last year, Cobel said they tracked down women soldiers who had been stationed out of Fort Lewis and Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, but this year hope to really be able to target Issaquah women.

“These people need us, they’re over there for us, and some of them aren’t there by choice,” Cobel said. “No matter how you feel about the wars, we have citizens that are overseas and need our support.”

She is encouraging anyone with names and military addresses for Issaquah women overseas to contact her at 228-7270 or srcobel@comcast.net.

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