Special delivery
Deployed Guardsman’s 9-year-old daughter prepares Christmas shipment for unit
By Sean Hart
Argus Observer
SeanH@argusobserver.com
Saturday, November 21, 2009 9:32 PM PST
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| Katelynn Bowden (center) stuffs stockings to send to her dad’s National Guard unit in Iraq with the help of Raigen Brixey (left) and Darcie Condie, Friday at Parma Elementary School. Bowden prepared 50 stockings for the soldiers, and they will be shipped Dec. 1. |
PARMA — Like so many other military families, the Bowdens won’t all be home for Christmas this year.
Idaho Army National Guard Spc. Theodore Bowden’s unit will be in Iraq until at least April, but his 9-year-old daughter, Katelynn, hopes to provide some holiday cheer overseas.
For her first Christmas without her father, Katelynn decided to send 50 stuffed stockings to Iraq to brighten the spirits of his entire unit — the 41st Infantry Brigade, Unit HHC 2-162 — at Camp Adder, Tallil, Iraq.
“They’re not at home celebrating Christmas with their families, so I thought we should make them feel at home by sending them stockings,” Katelynn said Friday, as her fourth-grade class at Parma Elementary School helped fill the stockings, which will be shipped Dec. 1.
“We had to get as many donations as we could and buy a lot of stuff,” Katelynn continued. “We got Dove shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, candy canes — the small ones — stockings, Chex Mix, trail mix.”
Katelynn said life is quite a bit different without her father.
“It’s just not the same when he’s not here,” she said. “It feels kind of sad because he won’t be able to give us our presents and watch us open it. Every (Christmas) morning, we get up early to see if we have presents, and he won’t be there this time.”
The family does stay in touch, though, with phone calls, letters and daily video chatting on the computer, Katelynn said.
“When he went to get on his plane, I started crying,” the young girl said about her father’s voluntary deployment. “Then my mom started crying. I gave my dad a big hug. We couldn’t see him get on the plane or watch him fly off, so we just said goodbye.”
Katelynn said she is proud of her father.
“But,” she said, “I still miss him.”
Contributors to this project include Albertsons, Wal-Mart, Williams & Uralde Inc., the Otten family and Bob Talbot, Payette.
Lifestyle Editor Sean Hart can be contacted at SeanH@argusobserver.com. Comment on this story online at www.argusobserver.com/news/us.
SPC Bowden wrote on Nov 22, 2009 7:28 AM:
I want to say the support and the love is appriciated. I appriciate everyone who helped Katelynn's project happen.
The support goes a long ways when your a world away from home. "