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Alice needs help to keep late husband's legacy alive

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Alice and Chris hold a Heroes Among Us Award presented by the Boston Celtics in January 2011. (Courtesy photo).

When Chris Greenleaf of Rochester died in September many told his wife, Alice, she should scale back all the work she and her husband did with Soldiers Helpers, a group the two founded in 2003 that has sent thousands of care packages to servicemen and women overseas.

But that's not about to happen, she said on Friday.

"I can't do that," she said. "This is Chris' legacy. We have to find ways to keep it going."

But Alice needs help, she said, to get the packages Chris Greenleaf has already lovingly packaged up from two bins at their Rochester home to the Milton Post Office for distribution to troops serving in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa

She said she has some 80 boxes to be picked up, and they need to be shipped no later than Jan. 16 when some of the larger-sized boxes will no longer be accepted by the United States Postal Service.

"We'd really like to get them sent for Christmas," she said.

Soldiers Helpers began in 2003 as the brainchild of the Greenleafs and Claire Geggatt, when along with Judy Vachon, former owner of the Ding-A-Ling restaurant in downtown Milton, they would send Christmas cards to San Diego, Calif., for distribution to any troops who shipped out of that Navy port to overseas trouble spots.

That same year a sailor from the USS Nimitz contacted the Greenleafs and they began sending Christmas cards and personal care packages to sailors on the ship.

Then the following they met a member of the Army National Guard from New Jersey whose father had served with Alice's under Patton in the Battle of the Bulge of WWII. He put the Greenleafs in touch with his chaplain, who oversaw a local Iraqi orphanage that was run by nuns. Most of the children had severe disabilities. That Christmas they mailed items and cards to the soldiers and also items to the chaplain for the orphans.

Soon they were sending out hundreds of care packages each year to several chaplains, who then distributed them to the troops.

In the packages are everything from food, DVDs and CDs to knitted hats, toiletries and Bibles as well as religious items dedicated to other religions.

Alice Greenleaf said last year some 750 troops received boxes from Soldiers Helpers, which is a standalone charity and totally funded from donations and gifts.

She said there are now four chaplains who are waiting for the boxes to give out to troops.

The prepackaged boxes currently on hand were filled by Chris Greenleaf this summer before he died of a massive heart attack in September, but they still have to be double taped due to often rough handling in transit, and transported to the Milton Post Office which has assisted in getting them mailed.

Specifically, Alice is looking for volunteers to come to her house, load the boxes into their vehicles and take them to the Milton Post Office.

She said some of the supplies packed into each box headed for Bagram Hospital in Afghanistan include T-shirts, socks and shorts, because when wounded soldiers arrive there their clothes are always cut away for wound treatment and they have little to wear.

Right now Alice is busy typing out military-specific address labels to go on the boxes, which will take her about 10 days to two weeks, she said.

After that she'll be looking for volunteers to finish the job.

Also, it should be noted that none of the boxes weigh more than 25 pounds, she said.

"This meant so much to Chris," she said. "He used to say I was the heart of this, but he was the heart and soul."

"I couldn't bear to stop," she added. "We promised we wouldn't stop until they're all home."

To contact Alice to volunteer give her a call at 603-781-4195 or email her at pudgyaunt99@aol.com

To learn more about Soldiers Helpers click here.

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