Valentine's Day for Warriors Abroad

HOUSTON - It's an effort to bring American troops a taste of home around Valentine’s Day. Valentines for Soldiers organized a care package creation frenzy Monday night at the Saint Arnold Brewery.

Volunteers packed the beer hall, stuffed boxes with packaged goods and constructed homemade Valentines cards out of stickers and construction paper.

"This is a lot of fun,” said volunteer Kelly Nolan. "We were talking about how it reminds us of grade school, making Valentine’s Day cards. We haven't done this in a long time. We're happy to do it for the troops."

Valentines for Soldiers started three years ago as a small, informal, kitchen-table event – the brainchild of Nishta Mehra.

"This idea that Valentine's Day is supposed to be about love, I think, speaks powerfully to the idea of acknowledging soldiers for what they're doing," says Mehra, "showing our gratitude and sending them love, as much as we can, in the form of baked goods and handmade Valentines."

While most volunteers can only imagine what it’s like for a soldier to receive a box in the desert with his or her name on it, Jim Beesley knows firsthand.

"I was in northern Afghanistan one night and it was a rough night and the C-130 landed," recalled Beesley, who's now retired from the military. "And they asked where I was and they had a package for me from Cunningham Middle School -- the school that I had worked at before I went overseas -- and it was just the most wonderful thing, totally unexpected in the middle of the night."

Volunteers actually paid to participate, Monday night. Some of the money collected will cover the postage for the care packages. Any leftover funds are to be donated to the Wounded Warriors Project.