STAR, Idaho (STPNS) --    Ray Ohlaug is the Sunday School Superintendent at the Friendship Celebration Lutheran Church in Meridian. The Sunday School at the church has been fund-raising, along with the entire congregation, since last fall. The goal was to assemble care packages for service men and women serving in Iraq. They collected funds to purchase the goods, and some were donated, and they also collected the money to pay for the postage to mail the packages. Captain Ray Ayers is a former member of the congregation and recently became an Army Reserve Chaplain. He relocated to Illinois and was deployed to Iraq, where he is currently leading the 327th MP Battalion. He has assisted with the effort from Iraq and will ensure the packages are delivered once they arrive.



    When the church had raised enough money, one hundred packages were assembled and ready to be mailed. John went to several area post offices to inquire about the possibility of streamlining the process of mailing the packages. One hundred boxes at one time is a lot of mail, and would have created a long line when other customers were trying to take care of their postal business.

    All of the post offices he visited said he would just have to get in line with the rest of the customers. He decided to stop in at the Star Post Office to see if there was any possibility of expediting the process at that location. Sherry Juker, a clerk at the Star Post Office, was working that day and after hearing Ray?s story, talked to Postmaster Janine Townsend. They immediately made arrangements for Ray to bring the boxes in the following week.

    Ray arrived right at 8:00 am on the scheduled day and Janine asked clerk Shelly Cable if she would come in earlier than her normal shift so she could exclusively handle this shipment. Regular customers were able to get their business accomplished and when there were no customers in line, everyone pitched in to get the shipment processed. ?When I heard the story about this man having so much trouble getting these boxes mailed, especially for such a worthy cause, I decided that we should do something to help. We are busy here, but the clerks were very willing to do the extra work required and we were all just glad we were able to assist this gentleman,? said Janine.

    The Star Fire Department also got involved by helping to unload the boxes. It was a great effort by everyone and thanks to Star Post Office for assisting with such a great project! If you would like more information about the delivery and distribution of the packages, Captain Ayers has established a website. Just log onto www.armychaplainray.blogspot.com.