Pennsylvania — Helping Our Troops: Public Employees Make it Personal

Clarion, Pennsylvania

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS | Clarion University of Pennsylvania employees - members of Local 2326 (Council 85) - help to provide drink mixes, toiletries and more to American soldiers overseas. Participants include from left: Jan Edmonds, Anita Lahr and Diane Whitton; second row: Trish Karg and Marcy Schlueter; third row: Scott Stewart and Bill Smit; fourth row: Ron Cypert and Deb Johnston.

Photo Credit: Tom Schott/Clarion University

When it comes to giving a helping hand, the members of Local 2326 (Pennsylvania Council 85) can stand proud: Their successful “Support Your Troops” project shows public employees not only care about their community, they put that care into action.

The local, which represents some 185 state workers — mostly employees of Clarion University — collected a bulging pickup-truckload of various toiletries and drink mixes. The local branch of Veterans of Foreign Wars, which created the list of items needed by soldiers who hail from Clarion County and surrounding areas, volunteered to ship parcels to Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea.

The brainstorm for the project came from custodian Diane Whitton, whose son, Billy, 21, is an Abrams tank repairman scheduled to serve in Iraq this year. Last December, he came home with a friend during leave from his Army base in California. “I was just so proud of both of them,” Diane says, and decided right then to start a collection drive. She brought her idea to the attention of Anita Lahr, president of Local 2326. The union quickly agreed to sponsor the drive.

Each item received a sticker identifying the union local and a statement of AFSCME’s support. Lahr, a clerk typist for the university’s biology department, says the “very successful” effort, which will expand to include donated phone cards, demonstrates that “we have a love for our state, country and our hometown — and that public employees do things beyond our work to help our country and our communities.”