Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Debbie Feigum is on a mission.
Her goal is to make sure that U.S. troops and their families have a happy holiday season.
Feigum, of Sweet Home, was out pounding the pavement last week, visiting local businesses to drum up support for the Operation Homefront holiday food baskets and gifts that will be presented to military families.
Feigum said she is almost completely blind but that hasn’t slowed her down since she discovered Operation Homefront, a Monmouth-based organization. She has had low-tension glaucoma for seven years, and can only see light and shadows.
“I know when the cars are coming” said Feigum, who is quick with a one-liner – particularly poking fun at herself. “I can see light.”
She uses a program on her computer that reads printed material to her and that’s how she found Operation Homefront. Well, sort of.
“My computer quit reading to me one day and I thought it said ‘Operation DVD Club,'” she said. “I started asking people for old DVD’s and CDs to send to the troops. I was wrong.”
When she found out what Operation Homefront was really about, she talked to a staff member who told her how to get boxes from the Post Office and how to qualify for flat-rate mailing to send items to troops.
She said military personnel’s needs are not much different than anyone else’s in the desert conditions of Iraq.
“I found out that basically what they need is toilet paper and personal hygiene items,” she said. Sunblock, lotions, wet wipes, razors, chapstick, eye drops and over-the-counter medicines such as Tylenol and Advil are particularly helpful, she said. Microwaveable meals are popular too. So are small cereal boxes and juice boxes. With winter coming on, black or white socks and gloves will be handy.
In her first two weeks of activity she mailed 32 boxes “and I have 15 more sitting around the dining room table right now,” she said.
Her husband Steve works at the new mill that has replaced the Bauman plant and he has been collecting CDs and DVDs from co-workers.
Feigum has lived in Sweet Home for 15 years. She and Steve have two (for her) stepdaughters in college.
She’s originally from Fort Campbell, Ky. “That’s why I have a lot of respect for soldiers,” she said.
“I’m out today to see if I can drum up some stuff for boxes,” she said last week as she tapped her way down the sidewalk.
She said she hopes to put boxes in schools so local children can donate to the cause.
“It’s a way to show we care,” she said. “We may not understand the war, we may not agree with the war, but these are our people – our brothers and sisters and friends out there.”
“I have time on my hands,” she said. “I thought, well, I want to do something. You can only clean house for so long, for crying out loud.”
To contact Feigum, call 818-0049.