Marines stationed in Afghanistan received a little kindness from Windsor recently and should expect more to come.

Since the beginning of the school year, faculty members at Windsor Elementary School, along with parents and other community members, collected supplies to send to troops in the 2nd Battalion 9th Marines, based out of Camp LeJeune, N.C, who are serving a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan.

Charlene Holland, a Windsor resident, said one of her family’s close friends serves in the battalion, and she wanted to do something to show the Marines her appreciation.

“My friend told me that some of the Marines out there never get anything sent to them,” she said.

Holland said she got her friends involved but also wanted to get the staff at Windsor Elementary School, where her children go to school, on board.

“I talked to my daughter’s teacher and asked her to talk to the other teachers about getting supplies,” she said.

Christine Morrison, who teaches Holland’s daughter’s kindergarten class, placed two boxes in her room and asked staffers to bring in items, such as toothbrushes, socks and other toiletries, to send overseas.

“Periodically, people would bring things up,” she said. “We did collect quite a bit.”

Holland said all of the efforts collected five large boxes of supplies, including snacks like deer and beef jerky and homemade cookies, as well as necessities, such as socks, baby wipes and hand sanitizer and many other things, “just little things they appreciate.”

The packages were shipped around Thanksgiving. Now, Holland wants to send more care packages to the group during the remainder of its deployment.

“We would still like to do a care package to them once a month,” Holland said. “It helps shows the kids appreciation of what they are doing for us.”

Morrison agrees that it’s critical to show the troops kindness.

“It’s something that is just important to me as a daughter of a veteran, to support the soldiers overseas,” she said.

As a token of their appreciation, the unit sent Holland an American flag signed by all of the marines in the group.

Holland said she wants to give it to Morrison, because she spearheaded the effort at the school.

To donate items to the monthly care packages, contact Charlene Holland at 376-7480.