The eight women gathered at the Embarrass Town Hall on Nov. 3 were on a mission. Not a religious one. Not a military one. Simply a nice one.

These local members of the group Operation Minnesota Nice were assembling their monthly care package to send to a soldier serving overseas.

Every month they come to the Embarrass Town Hall bringing dozens of small items to ship overseas. They bring a flat-rate priority package box. And a label with a name.

The names are not family members or friends. They are not even necessarily from Minnesota. The names are all referrals. Men and women serving overseas who have noticed a friend who is not getting mail or packages from home will refer someone, anonymously, to the program. Each Minnesota Nice volunteer is assigned one name, and they are responsible for sending a package each month while that person is overseas, usually for about a year.

Christy Mesojedec started the local Minnesota Nice group in 2007. She had no personal connection to someone serving overseas, but had read about the program and figured it was something she could do. She rounded up some friends and the Embarrass chapter was formed. The group meets the first Tuesday of each month at the Embarrass Town Hall. New volunteers are always welcome, as well as people just able to help out by purchasing items or helping with shipping costs.

Right now the group is sponsoring 11 soldiers. Each volunteer is responsible for the costs of the items and the shipping. Some people work with a partner, to help split the cost. It costs $11.95 to ship a large flat-rate priority mail box to a military person oversees. The box measures 12 inches by 12 inches by 5-1/2 inches tall. It doesn’t look that big, but as these women have found out, you can certainly pack a lot of stuff in it. The cost of filling a box will vary, but can get expensive. Boxes generally take 10-12 days to arrive.

Volunteers buy in bulk and are quite creative. For November’s boxes they had tried to shop around a Thanksgiving theme. Packages of instant mashed potatoes, small cans of cranberry sauce, small shelf-stable pies went into each box. Larger packages of single-serve items were broken apart and shared. Each Operation Nice volunteer brought a half dozen of each item, which they shared with the others, as the boxes were filled. Toothpaste, facial tissues, cookies, jerky, small cans of fruit, soup mix, potato chips, greeting cards, tea, honey, hand lotion and other toiletries were spread out on the table. The boxes, lined with a protective layer of plastic, were filled. They would then be taken home and filled to the brim, often with home-baked items, which seem to be a favorite on the receiving end.

Each of these volunteers has made a commitment– to send a package once a month to their assigned serviceperson, until that person is back in the United States. Into each box also goes something personal– a note, a letter, some pictures from home, and a self-addressed stamped envelope. And in return, sometimes volunteers receive heart-felt thank-yous, as well as stories of life as a soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is this contact that keeps the program going.

Getting a box of homemade cookies to share with your fellow soldiers before setting off on patrol is enough to make even a Sargeant smile.

One soldier wrote back about how he had shared his large batch of cookies with his patrol unit.

Her soldier wrote back what a big hit the cookies were and how his Sargeant had proclaimed “damn, these are good cookies.”

Aleta Roy, of Embarrass, baked a chocolate cake, froze it, then sealed it using a vacuum-sealer. She sent it along with a jar of ready-to-spread frosting in her box for the month. The box arrived right after her serviceman had returned to the States, so the box was given to another soldier in his unit. It turned out this solider was from Hoyt Lakes, and knew Roy’s family.

“He was thrilled,” she said, “and I knew his mom.”

Since Operation Minnesota Nice was formed in 2004, they have delivered packages to over 7,236 soldiers, though more soliders are still on a waiting list for packages.

In December, Operation Minnesota Nice will try to mail a package to every soldier on the waiting list. Each local group is being asked to “adopt” additional names just for the December mailing. Anyone wanting to help out, or perhaps committing to adopting a soldier for each month, can contact Christy Mesojedec at 218-984-2034 or email Christy@rangenet.com. The Embarrass group will meet next on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 6:30 p.m. at the Embarrass Town Hall. For more information on the program, visit the website at www.operationminnesotanice.com.