More than 200 residents of La Costa Glen's continuing care retirement community in Carlsbad recently wrapped gifts including pre-paid phone cards, DVD movies, cologne, travel kits, cosmetic kits, flashlights, books, hand creams and lotions, and CDs for troops serving in Afghanistan.
Each gift also included a personal letter addressed to “Warrior Hero” from a La Costa Glen resident thanking them for their service.
The gifts are being packed into boxes stuffed with Christmas stockings and strings of holiday lights to be shipped in early November.
The holiday gift-wrapping event is part of the community’s Care Packages From Home program. Founded by La Costa Glen resident Les Tenney, a POW held in captivity in the Philippines during World War II and a survivor of the Bataan Death March, Care Packages From Home is now in its fifth year.
With this latest holiday effort, more than 14,000 boxes have been shipped to men and women serving in the Middle East. Resident Sheila Griffin organized this year's gift-wrapping event.
For more information on the program or to request a care package for a service member in a combat zone visit: carepackagesfromhome.org/request.html
