REELSBORO – A small group of local citizens need donations, and occasional helping hands, to prepare hundreds of ‘send off’ packages for troops routinely departing from Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station.

Mary Ann Martin and Nancy White, assisted by husbands Don and J.T., are so well known by base personnel that commanding officers give them a quiet ‘heads up’ when troops from throughout eastern North Carolina muster at one of several hangars in Havelock – all of whom are bound for military hotspots in either Iraq or Afghanistan.