Our friend Cheré called last week and asked us to come over to photograph the Blue Star Mothers of NV (Henderson & Boulder City chapter) while they packed up holiday care packages and Christmas stockings for NV servicemen and women. With the help of many businesses who donated items, lots of ladies who sewed up the stockings and an army of determined volunteers, the Moms sent over 1,000 stockings out, just in time to brighten up the holidays.




It was quite an operation with assembly line stuffing and boxing.









The gentlemen in the suit is the Mayor of Henderson, who came out despite an injured hand, to show his support. Of course, the news crew came too...






Volunteers swarm over the pile of stuffed stockings to get them boxed for shipping.



These two gents took a well deserved break after helping to reduce the mammoth pile of stockings to boxed and sealed packages.


We could have just taken pictures, but that's not what we do ... so here's Krystal sealing and taping boxes for the overseas flight.


The moms ran low on socks and a few other supplies. We got the operation back on track with a trip to Costco. You should have seen all the strange looks we got with two cases of socks on the cart. That's 296 pairs of warm feet right there with 1,000 clean pairs of hands, 24 hot meals, 12 packs of beef jerky, lots of candy and many cans of fruit.



There's no doubt that Cheré knows where her son is. As you gather with your friends and family this season, take a few minutes to send good thoughts to our troops for a safe return home.

More pictures