Pictured above: Alicia Blankenfeld, Barb Lease, Sis Vogel.
On Tuesday, November 19th, Mayflower Community residents, Barb Lease and Sis Vogel, delivered to Total Choice Shipping and Printing, the “We Care” items contributed during Mayflower’s Veterans Day commemoration in Grinnell.
In order to send packages overseas, all items must be inventoried and noted on declaration forms. Barb and Sis had planned to spend most of a day working on this along with the boxing of the items. Alicia Blankenfeld, owner of Total Choice, jumped in, offering to take care of the inventory, all the paperwork, all the packing, and the shipping FOR FREE! Talk about community service!
In an article run in the November 15th edition of Grinnell College’s “Scarlett and Black,” by student writer, Ingrid Meulemans, Barb was quoted as saying, “I am on the board of the Grinnell Historical Museum. I thought it would be neat this year to honor veterans with a joint event. So, the museum provided historical military artifacts, and set up a display in Mayflower’s Pearson building. We put up historical items we had brought over from the museum, and I also let people at the Mayflower know that if they had personal family artifacts, that they should bring those as well.”
In addition to the display, Barb and Sis also organized the “We Care” package that would be sent to service men and women abroad. The unit that will receive this package happens to be Lease’s husband, Leo Lease’s, reserve unit. In an effort to include even more community members, Barb reached out to Stella Anderson, her friend and a third-grade teacher at Davis Elementary School, and asked if students would be interested in drawing pictures and writing letters that could be included in the We Care package. After Stella talked about the event with other teachers at Davis, Lease received an email back saying that not only would third-grade be willing to participate, but the whole school was hoping to join in as well.
“So, long story short,” said Barb, “we had a wonderful visit from the children at Davis.” All the result of honoring America’s veterans.
— Bob Mann, Sales & Marketing Director
