CHRISTMAS HEADS TO IRAQ

News Herald Photo by Brenda Brown Citizens Bank employees, with the help of friends from near and far, pooled their money and their time to fill 225 Christmas care packages for American soldiers serving in Iraq. Employees and others who worked overtime to ready the gift boxes for mailing are, from left, Theresa Ferguson, Toni Ferguson, Jerry Camp, Elvia Lucio, Beckey Hobbs, Frank Connealy and Jean Carr. Not pictured are volunteers Ruth Ann Camp, Daniel Lucio and Dorsha Morgan. Soldiers serving thousands of miles from home will have at least one reason to smile this Christmas, thanks to local bank employees and friends they didn't even know they had.

Employees from Citizens Bank chose as their holiday project this year to prepare and mail care packages to military troops serving in Iraq. Each year, the employees choose to do something nice for someone during the holidays, so this year when employee Theresa Ferguson suggested they do something for soldiers, they agreed, wholeheartedly...and then some.

The staff at the bank pooled their money and Citizens Bank matched their money dollar for dollar.

Kenneth Plunk, Citizens Bank executive vice president, praised employees for their "great, great response."

"Some may pay lip service about soldiers but I don't know how many do something," Plunk said. "Theresa came up with the idea and she worked really hard on it."

When others from Kilgore, Longview, Gladewater and, believe it or not, Waco, heard about the project, more money poured in, along with hundreds of useful items to add to the gift boxes.

The Fergusons approached still others about the project and everyone they spoke to immediately said "Yes!"

"Word of mouth is how all this came about," said Theresa Ferguson.

The Waco connection comes through the Fergusons. Toni told her sister-in-law, Terry Ferguson, what the bank and community were doing. Her brother in-law, Richard, a commercial building contractor, got excited. He told others. Before they knew it, boxes of donations and money began arriving in Kilgore.

"If we had to name everyone who gave, we would probably forget because there are so many," Theresa said.

Stuffed to the brim with everything from eyedrops and aspirin to sunflower seeds and playing cards to magazines and stationery, each box also contains letters of appreciation written by the many individuals, businesses and church groups who contributed.

In addition to all the goodies for the soldiers, each box contains a miniature Beanie Baby for the soldiers to give as presents to Iraqi children they meet during their mission.

"We hope the Beanie Babies will help our soldiers build a bridge to Iraqi kids because some of them are told how bad Americans are," Theresa Ferguson said.

The packages, each filled with more than $50 worth of items, will be sent to "our guys" from East Texas, as well as many soldiers from other states.

"We don't know any of their names, where they are from or where they are going specifically," Toni Ferguson said. "We only know they are American soldiers doing an important job for all of us."

As Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors, Theresa and Toni happened to meet several months ago with soldiers who were honored at Kilgore College and they kept up with one of the group's commanders. When this idea emerged, they contacted him and he helped to maneuver them to make sure the packages make it to Iraq.

The Fergusons stuffed the first 100 gift packages by themselves and they say it took about 13 hours. For the next 100, they (wisely) solicited help from Citizens Bank employees, who gathered on a Friday evening to volunteer their time. After all that was done, they still had money left, so the Fergusons went shopping and bought enough for 25 more boxes.

And, after all the buying and packaging was done, another Ferguson, Toni's husband Billy, did much of the heavy lifting, moving boxes from the house to the bank to the post office.

"We just hope the soldiers know this is a community project and that the folks back home are thinking of them," Toni Ferguson added.