Published Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:50 AM
Updated Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:51 AM

 

Watts Line 05/01/08

Supplies arrive in Iraq


For a couple of months now, we have been collecting school supplies for Bob Dunleavy, a Lowcountry resident deployed to Iraq. He wrote to Publisher Ellen Priest about the children and schools that had no supplies.

We offered to help, to get the word out to our readers.

Since that time, this community has taken Pfc. Dunleavy’s request to heart and has collected supplies and shipped them to Iraq. I’ve had numerous calls from people wanting to send, in addition to paper and pencisl, everything from cookies to dolls.

We had become concerned for his safety when we didn’t hear from him for some weeks. When Priest wrote his family asking about him, we were all relieved to hear that he had been out with his company on a mission in Sadr City.

While he was gone the supplies starting arriving and piling up.

Here is the letter we received from him last week:

Sorry it has been so long since writing. Things have been very busy this way and are almost back to normal.

The project is a HUGE success! I have about 75 boxes at this point. Of

course about 15 of them are from people I know, but all the rest are from

names I have never heard of which means.... the readers and you helped make it as successful as it was. Although, the project is far from over on my end.

I have spent the last month in Sadr City because my company was needed up there because of everything that was going on in Sadr City which is about an hour away from where we are located. We got back early this morning, our work is done in Sadr City and we have been replaced with another unit so we can return to our own sectors. We will spend the next few days recovering, enjoying showers, hot chow and the months worth of

mail we had missed out on.

My platoon sergeant and myself have put together a plan to get all the supplies to 4 or 5 of the local schools here. It looks like we will be passing it out 2-3 weeks from now ( I still know of a lot more supplies that are on the way). Do you know of anymore?

I got a bunch of boxes from churches and I was curious if the shipping was paid with the donated money.

Of course I will keep my word and get lots of wonderful pictures of the supplies being handed out and of the kids and schools and tell you all about the event so the readers will know how successful the supplies drive was. Many people also sent other "goodies" for the kids to enjoy. The next 5 days we will have a lot more free time to recover and do what we need to do, also pack because we are moving to a different camp that is actually adjacent to the sectors that we work in.

Thank you for all the hard work on y’alls end.

Bob Dunleavy

For any of you who wish to send supplies yourselves, the address is:

PFC Robert Dunleavy

A Co 1-21 In BN #43007 Camp Liberty

APO AE 09344-3005

And when we receive photos from Dunleavy, we will share them with all of you.

Contact Judy Watts at 873-9424 ext. 220 or jwatts@journalscene.com.