Staff Photo by Dan Henry Justin Hair, a co-organizer of Support the Troops, speaks about his ambition to send over 600 boxes of food and supplies to overseas military personnel in the third year of the event for 2009. Mr. Hair bakes homemade cookies and sets up drop boxes starting in mid-October and running through Novermber to show the area's appreciation for the military.

DALTON, Ga. — When Justin Hair served in Operation Iraqi Freedom from May 2005 to April 2006, some of his favorite items to receive from home were tuna meal packets, homemade cookies and ESPN magazines.

“When I got packages, it made my day,” said Mr. Hair, a veteran of the U.S. Army National Guard.

Mr. Hair is working with local resident Rick Brown — a veteran of Operation Desert Storm in 1991 — to send as many packages as possible to troops this holiday season.

Both men have sent packages to troops overseas in years past, but this year they’re combining efforts and hope to send more than 400 packages in what they call “Operation Uplift.”

As veterans they’ve “both been on the receiving end of support,” Mr. Brown said, and they know that getting letters and other items can do a lot to boost morale and remind servicemen and women that people back home are thinking about them.

“I try to always send stuff that they don’t have to buy or they can use on the spot,” Mr. Hair said.

Enthusiasm around the effort has grown, he said. This year, even more community members are involved because many of Dalton’s own are deployed in Afghanistan with Charlie Troop, a Dalton-based unit of the Georgia National Guard’s 1/108th Calvary Regiment.

Mr. Hair said residents are welcome to drop off items, help get packages ready to ship on Nov. 24 or donate money for mailing costs. The boxes are mailed out at a flat rate of $11.95 each, so mailing hundreds of packages will cost thousands of dollars, he said.

Jerry Henderson, a commercial carpet designer with Mohawk Industries, said the company has drop-off locations throughout its buildings. He said he especially was touched when Mr. Hair told him how soldiers share the packages with one another.

“I just want it (Operation Uplift) to be very successful for them,” Mr. Henderson said.

ITEMS NEEDED FOR MILITARY PACKAGES

* Deodorant

* Spices, salt, pepper

* Coffee

* Paperback books

* Chewing gum

* Toothbrushes and toothpaste

* Ramen noodles

* Granola bars

* Disposable cameras

* Long-distance phone cards

* Hand warmers

* Sunflower seeds

* Canned food items

* Boot socks

* Hot cocoa mix

* Newspapers and magazines

* Dominoes

* Razors

Source: Operation Uplift poster

GET INVOLVED

Drop-off locations:

* Studio 360, 238 N. Hamilton St.

* Dalton National Guard Armory, 709 W. Crawford St.

* Cohutta Banking Co., 1416 Dug Gap Road and 1501 N. Thornton Ave.

To donate money for shipping:

* Mail tax-deductible donations to First Presbyterian Church, 510 S. Tibbs Road

For more information or to volunteer, call Justin Hair at Studio 360 at 706-529-5000 or Rick Brown at 706-540-5624

Sources: Rick Brown, Justin Hair