 FORWARD OPERATING BASE GRIFFIN, Afghanistan —
Many organizations have supported the Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Ohio Army National Guard by providing care packages during the unit's deployment. All of these boxes have been filled with items that provided a little taste of home.
One organization that recently supported the troops with more than 60 care packages was the AmeriCorps Ohio College Guides of Zanesville, Ohio. AmeriCorps is considered America's domestic Peace Corps.
How does a community in southeast Ohio end up supporting a unit in northwest Ohio?
"It is important to support the people that are giving their lives to maintain the lifestyle/freedom in the U.S.," said Tiffany Scanlan, AmeriCorps Ohio College Guide with Scholarship Central in Zanesville. "I enjoy helping people I don't know. Knowing I put good energy out into the world is a great reward."
Kelli Hartmeyer, another AmeriCorps Ohio College Guide with Scholarship Central, echoed Scanlan.
"It's like the philosophy of paying it forward," Hartmeyer said. "What starts off as something small tends to grow and that can change everything. I would say that knowing that you're paying it forward to someone else feels amazing because, little by little, you are changing the world."
The care packages contained all sorts of snack food items that Soldiers cannot always get while deployed, or are harder to come by in the military post exchanges that are located in remote areas. Some of the items they received were jars of peanut butter, Slim Jims, Skittles, granola bars, cans of soup and many other varieties of candy and snacks.
Colby Childs, the care package project leader, said the project involved more than just the members of the College Guides.
"The community was incredibly supportive throughout this project," Childs said. "The outpouring of support from area students, community members and organizations to collect items and cover the cost of shipping 60 care packages was overwhelming."
Community members collected items for several weeks prior to packing all the items into boxes, transporting them to the post office and shipping them to Afghanistan. Childs said the project would not have been possible without the encouragement and support of the Zanesville community.
The AmeriCorps Ohio College Guides program is entering its third year and currently supports 60 recent college graduates serving as college guides in multiple locations throughout Ohio. The grant is administered and managed by the Ohio College Access Network. According to its website, the AmeriCorps Ohio College Guides program maintains that all students deserve equal access to educational opportunities. The goal of College Guides to ensure that students, especially typically underserved students — first generation college-going, low-income and minority — get the information and knowledge they need and deserve to make educated decisions and plans for their future.
College guides are required to plan a minimum of five community service projects during the program's required National Days of Service. The care package drive facilitated this year was for their AmeriCorps Week project.
The 148th is headquartered in Walbridge, Ohio, near Toledo, with Soldiers from all over the state.
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