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Factoid: For more information on the Southern Illinois Yellow Ribbon Campaign, visit www.siyellowribbon.com.
Shortly following the end of the war with Iraq, patriotic Americans all over Southern Illinois began taking down their flags and yellow ribbons used to symbolize support for the boys overseas to rejoice in the homecoming of America's troops.
Southern Illinoisans went back to their lives. With their friends and relatives back in the United States, the rallies for support and drives for supplies stopped.
But Kathy Williams and Amy Oxford of Harrisburg have one thing to say to that - troops are still in Iraq, and they still need our help.
The mother and daughter have continued with the Southern Illinois Yellow Ribbon Campaign, which was started March 19, the day President George W. Bush declared war on Iraq, despite the end of the conflict.
The yellow ribbons and pins are displayed to show support for the troops, and the proceeds from their sale sends boxes of supplies regularly to more than 500 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. But they haven't sent any in a while.
"We have half a room full of supplies, but we've exhausted every bit of postage money we had," Williams said. "We sent out 60 boxes last time around, and that was the end of it."
Williams said it takes between $15 and $25 to mail the individual boxes, which are filled with supplies like toothpaste and toilet paper, though she doesn't know how many boxes the supplies will fill. They are stocked as full as possible, hence the heavy postage.
She said she has recently received numerous requests from soldiers for cooling devices.
"We got three letters today. One said it got up to 146 degrees," Williams said. "Another said he was just getting two cups of water a day because supplies are so low, and it's really hot out there."
But since public attention has been pointed away from Iraq, the drives for supplies have stopped and so has the revenue.
"The people gave up," she said. "They think the war is over and the troops are coming home. Some are, but not all. Some won't be able to come home for another year. What we want to get out now is 'don't give up.'"
Williams said that when they first began in March, she and her daughter were the first to hang yellow ribbons to show support. The symbols then popped up throughout Harrisburg and Southern Illinois.
"We had church groups and schools raising donations for the troops," she said. "We were still sending supplies when the Red Cross could not. We know they get letters back, so we know they got there."
Since then, the number of soldiers Williams and Oxford regularly send to has expanded beyond 500. Williams said the soldiers are not confined to Southern Illinois. Though the group currently sends packages to soldiers from Carbondale, Marion, Herrin and Harrisburg, they also send to soldiers whose homes are throughout the Midwest.
"Right now we're trying to focus on getting what we have over there," she said.
