• Name of Club/Organization

Support Our Troops Club
Moderator: Kristen Schultz '98
kschultz@lasallehs.org

• Describe what your club/organization is about and what you do

The Support Our Troops Club was founded in 2011 and serves to support active duty military, veterans and military families, including Gold Star Kids and Gold Star Moms. The Club has also supported military working dogs. The kids have done a variety of things from writing cards and making gift baskets for veterans, sending care packages to military stationed overseas, making care packages for military working dogs and their handlers, visiting local reservist stations, helping out at events at Ft. Irwin and Camp Pendleton, and having various military speakers at their club meetings.

• How many students are involved?

The club has a roster of 40+ students with 3 Club leaders.

• Favorite activity/event of the year (or greatest achievement)

While the students enjoy all of the activities and service projects they participate in their favorite activity every year is going out to Fr. Irwin in Barstow, a military training base 30 miles off the freeway in the middle of nowhere, to help decorate the base for Christmas. The club members get to paint Christmas scenes on windows, string Christmas lights across the downtown area, hang wreaths and help decorate the oversized tree in the center of the main street. Many times they are working side by side active duty military and their families. This is a tradition the Club has participated in for the last 10 years and each year the kids can’t wait to go back. They get to see firsthand what a military base looks like and how isolated life can be on one. It gives them a better understanding of how important the Thanksgiving food drive they do each year for military families in need is and also how valuable the Christmas Trees are that the School fundraises for and then donates to the base each year.

• Things you would like to do in the future and what you need to be able to accomplish them

The Club is always looking for more ways to connect with and support the military. We are always looking for new service opportunities and awareness campaigns that we can bring to campus. Most military organizations out there are in need of money rather than physical volunteers so that is often a hindrance but if anyone has any ideas or connections please let us know!