Windsor residents prepare sweet surprise

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Donning her World War II military bars, 1st Lt. Gerry Haller couldn’t suppress a grin as she and friends at The Windsor of Lakewood Ranch packed homemade chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia nut and other cookies into boxes for soldiers overseas.

As a veteran herself, Haller knows how special the packages will be to the troops who receive them. She also knows they’ll be extra special for the man receiving these particular boxes — her grandson, Capt. Scott Hall of the 1st Calvary Division, out of Ft. Hood, Texas.

Hall has been stationed in Afghanistan since April. He is a 2004 Lakewood Ranch High School graduate and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army in 2008.

Braden Woods resident Susan Hall, who has been sending treats to her son, Scott, every few weeks since he left, joined her mother at The Windsor Aug. 24, where resident ambassadors gathered to pack 400 freshly baked cookies, as well as coffee and playing cards, for shipment to Afghanistan.

“It’s really expensive to do, but it means so much to them,” Hall said of sending treats to the troops. “(Scott) always asks for more. He shares (what he gets) and it’s gone so fast. I was telling everybody here about maybe helping to support them. They took it from there.”

The assisted-living facility now has agreed to donate its own resources for the cause and hopes to send monthly shipments of cookies or other treats to Scott’s unit.

Resident ambassadors also will be taking donations from The Windsor’s residents to help offset the costs.One box of cookies costs about $13 to ship, plus the cost of items included.

“We have so many veterans here of World War II,” said Sonja Carpenter, Windsor life enrichment coordinator. “Gerry has served the country, and she’s (Scott’s) grandmother. That’s our motivation.”

A second cookie “pack and ship” date has been scheduled for Sept. 13, Carpenter said.

“It’s going to mean so much to so many soldiers over there,” Susan Hall said. “To bring them a little hometown TLC — it’s wonderful. These will be gone in a day.

“They get homesick,” she said. “They miss the simple things (such as) cookies. It means so much they care enough to do all this and most of them have never met Scott.”

Haller agreed.

“I think it’s the most wonderful thing to happen, and so will these boys over there,” she said.
Scott Hall’s unit likely will be in Afghanistan until May 2012.

Individuals wishing to contribute to the cause can contact Carpenter at 907-9177 or [email protected]

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

HALLER’S CALL OF DUTY
Gerry Haller enlisted in the military in 1942 after many soldiers from her hometown died in Japan’s Bataan Death March, a 60-mile trek, marked by abuse and murder, that killed thousands of American and Filipino prisoners of war.

“Prisoners marched without food or water — almost everyone died,” Haller said. “Only one kid I knew came back and he was coo-coo.

“That’s why I enlisted,” she said. “It made me mad. When you’re mad, you aren’t afraid anymore. It’s unbelievable what they did.”

Haller served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, and eventually was selected to attend officer candidate school so she could run a secret mission to help protect the country’s eastern coast. After President Franklin Roosevelt cancelled the project, she was assigned to the U.S. Air Force and went to Washington, where she worked as a budget and fiscal officer.

Haller said she and her late husband, Paul, whom she met during her military service, were extremely proud of Scott Hall’s accomplishments.

“He’s a fine young man, always was,” Haller said. “Everything he did to achieve in his life was to be the best. Not every kid is like that.”

Haller sent Scott Hall her 2nd lieutenant bars when he graduated from officer candidate school and her 1st lieutenant bars when he was promoted to first lieutenant.

Scott Hall now proudly wears his grandfather’s captain’s bar, which Haller sent to him when Scott again was promoted.

“I’m just sentimental, I guess,” Haller said. “I wanted him to have them. He was always proud I was in the service.”

MESSAGE FROM A HERO
In an email to his mother, Capt. Scott Hall thanked everyone who has sent care packages to him and his fellow soldiers. He wrote:

“I have been able to share and distribute all of the items and baked goods out to all the people I work with, and they all love everything they get. Through my position, I have made quick packages and dropped into remote outposts and handed out some of the goods you have sent. That is where I try to aim for distribution when I can. Those soldiers out there live off very little and something like that, home-baked goods from home, raises morale for days.”