By Martha Jacob –

The Troop Box Ministry was founded in the year 2001 by Hamersville resident Diane Lawrence and her sister Jean Johnston. It is a 501C-3 non-profit organization located in Brown County, but is not limited to Brown County residents, according to Lawrence.
“We regularly ship care packages to any soldier that we can get names and addresses for,” Lawrence said. “We get our names from our local friends, families, neighbors and a lot of the names and addresses come from soldiers that we’re already serving. They send names of their buddies already serving with them who have no other contacts.
“We ship to our men and women from the first month we receive their names and addresses until they come home. Many of the soldiers we have followed from their basic training through 4-6 deployments.”
Lawrence said that in the Troop Box Ministry’s 15 years it has not failed to ship out care packages to the soldiers on a monthly basis.
The organization ships things to the soldiers like most personal car products to shirts, sox, underclothes, (helmet liners, gloves, neck gators,) for winter’s cold.
“We also send the soldiers  snacks of all sorts, can foods, canned fruit, dried fruit, candy, gum, puzzle books, playing cards and hand held games,” Lawrence said. “Most everything we send is already shippable.
“We are here to try and do our small part to help make their stay overseas more comfortable.”
She added that Troop Box Ministry has many, many volunteers who make all the packing and mailing’s possible. Friends, local families and area churches volunteer to help as well as make donations.
The group has served hundreds of service men and women through the years and has sent supplies to them every month since their deployment.
“We are currently involved with several Veteran programs,” Lawrence said, “We are honored to be able to contribute to the memorial monuments honoring our Veterans Park in Milford Ohio, as well as help pay for meals. Unit #180 American Legion Post serves dinners to all veterans who are brought in from around the tri-state area as well as our local Veterans. We are also proud to be a part of the Open Arms Always.”
To learn more about Troop Box Ministry or to make a donation to the work that they do, please visit them on facebook at Troop Box Ministry or email at lawrencediana39@yahoo.com.