Building The Future Together

Our last Troop Care Shipment of the year was held Friday, December 5th at Hunzinger Construction University.  Over 45 volunteers helped to package and ship 115 boxes totaling 2,390 pounds of supplies. The shipment had a Christmas holiday theme and the packages included food items that are easy to prepare and carry like Ramen noodles, Easy Mac, beef jerky, gum, mints, trail mix and various granola bars. Additionally, the packages contained socks, underwear and towels that are often requested and a variety of toiletries.

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For the 4thyear, the evening before, on Thursday night December 4, 71 members of Brookfield Academy Cub Scout Pack 183 family boxed up another 41 holiday troop care packages for our Armed Forces serving overseas as part of our Community Service and Cub Scouts “Good Turn for America Program”. Home Made Greeting Cards and letters written by BA scouts were included in each box, along with snacks, toiletries, games, DVD’s and candy. The boxes are being shipped out by the troop’s service partner Hunzinger Construction Company, as part of our larger ongoing program that has shipped over 80,000 pounds of packages overseas to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Special Guest Command Sgt. Major Frank Parker assisted the boys in packaging up the ‘goodies’ along with several Potawatomi Area Council representatives and Boy Scout Troop 183 Scoutmaster Jerry Zimmerman.  Thank you to all the students, teachers, and parents for giving  a little present to our brave veterans who find themselves overseas and away from their families this year, and helping Troop 183  bank over 200 hours service hours!

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Hunzinger’s other sponsors and large donors were CUNA Mutual, Plunkett Raysich Architects, UGL Services, The Olympic Companies, Jockey International, The Republican Party of Waukesha, The Brookfield Public Library, Oconomowoc Quilters Guild, Lange Brothers Drywall, St. Mary’s Christian Women of Elm Grove and the Elm Grove Women’s Club.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County held an event on November 4th where they collected and stuffed holiday stockings to be included in these packages heading overseas. The “Bigs” and “Littles” wrote cards and letters and decorated ornaments for the stockings. They filled the stockings with candy, gum, books, beef jerky, nuts, socks and games.

We received lots of help from local Girl Scout troops, Catholic East Elementary in Milwaukee, a number of Milwaukee Public Schools including Bethune Academy, Cass Street Elementary, Forest Home Avenue Elementary School, Hartford Avenue School, Keefe Avenue School, MacDowell Montessori School, Maryland Avenue School, Townsend Street Elementary School, and Escuela Vieau School. Waukesha Public Schools participating were Hadfield and Whittier Elementary School of Waukesha in addition to Brookfield Academy.

At Hunzinger, we really appreciate others getting involved in our Troop Care Shipment Program. It is rewarding to see the enthusiasm people bring to this effort. To date, our Troop Care Shipment Program has delivered 42 tons of supplies to 100 military units on 20 bases.

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