Goodies: A grateful mom embraces soldiers

When her two sons were wounded while fighting in Iraq, Jackie Anderson's first reactions were, quite naturally, as a mother.

For each son in turn -- A.J. Anderson, the oldest who was shot in the right leg and foot in August 2006 while serving as a Marine sniper, and Matt Anderson, a Marine combat engineer who took shrapnel in his left shoulder, courtesy of an improvised explosive device in September 2007 -- she prayed.

Her first thoughts were that she was grateful that they had survived. When she knew that they were out of immediate danger, she turned her attention to their convalescence and physical therapy.

"It's not the life I would have chosen for them," Anderson said before recounting a long line of military service that runs through both sides of the family. "From the time they were both very little, they kept saying over and over again that they were going in the Marines Corps."

Only when it became clear that her sons were well down the path toward recovery did Anderson take some time to reflect upon the sacrifices offered willingly by her boys and decided that she needed to do something to help other young soldiers wounded in battle.

One box at a time

Once her sons overcame her maternal protectionist instincts and enlisted, Anderson threw herself into supporting them.

The owner of Sweetie's, a small store in Reynolda Village that sells gourmet chocolates, coffees and gift items, Anderson started sending treats to her sons. Because they were serving in Iraq, she went through quite a trial-and-error process to find just the right combination of things that wouldn't turn to goo en route.

Just when that was settled, Matt gently broke the news about another unanticipated flaw in her plan, and asked her to stop sending him treats in Sweetie's boxes.

"He said, ‘Mom, all these guys know my mom owns a candy store, and I'm the smallest Marine in my outfit. I get pummeled, and they get the goodies,'" she said.

Instead of quitting, Anderson hit upon another approach. She decided in summer 2007 to expand her effort.

"I learned that there were lots of kids who got no mail from back home," she said. "For me, it was hard to understand how somebody sees their children go off to a war zone and not write them. But there are many kids who come from questionable backgrounds or come from broken homes and don't have anybody to send them things."

She learned the ins and outs of mass mailings overseas. She contacted Rep. Virginia Foxx and Sen. Richard Burr for tips, and designed gift boxes specific to each branch of the service.

"I had to get contact information for field-grade officers or senior enlisted men in Iraq and Afghanistan," Anderson said. "You have to have real people there to accept the boxes and see that they're distributed."

Snowballing effort

Anderson originally intended to keep her Patriot Box program small. She figured that word of mouth would help her find enough people to sponsor boxes for 100 soldiers that first year.

As such things do, it snowballed. On July 3, 2007, she was host to a small gathering and wound up with 150 sponsors.

A local radio station promoted the effort, and my colleague Kim Underwood also wrote about Anderson that summer.

Requests kept trickling in, and by Christmas, she had another rush.

The next Fourth of July, she expanded the gathering. The National Guard came out. Mayor Allen Joines and Sen. Elizabeth Dole came to speak, along with several decorated veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the war in Iraq.

Quite a success to be sure -- she has a letter from President Bush noting the program -- but she felt that there was more she could do to honor her sons, both of whom are now out of the Marine Corps. The most natural fit was expanding yet again to send boxes with a Purple Heart logo to the wounded in military hospitals.

Anderson dreams of something even bigger. She heard about a drive in Fayetteville to send 300,000 Christmas boxes to soldiers -- one of which will contain a gift certificate from a local auto dealer there for a new car -- and would like to replicate the effort here.

"Matt was back with his unit in six weeks, and A.J. came home on a stretcher, but he's walking now," Anderson said. "I know I have fared better than many mothers, and I'm grateful for that."

■ Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com.