Soldier adoption sweeps across U.S.

One Bigfork mom's mission to adopt out every member of her son's Army unit in Iraq has gained momentum, attracting volunteers from across the valley and out-of-state to write letters and send care packages.

Along with Montanans answering her call, Kim Jones said she has heard from people living out-of-state in places such as California and Colorado. She said requests for soldiers' names come in every day.

"It's been tremendous," Jones said. "People have been absolutely wonderful."

When she spoke with the Inter Lake in early November, Jones needed 140 more people to adopt members of HHC 4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division Battalion: 4-3 Brigade Special Troops Battalion now deployed in Kalsu, Iraq.

As her ultimate goal, Jones hoped to have each soldier adopted four times since people have different amounts of time to write and resources to send packages. As of Wednesday, she said she was working on "round three" of adoptions.

"I want people to realize however little or much they want to do is appreciated," she said.

Jones encourages people to pass on her contact information to others. And so far, the volume of interest has crashed one computer's hard drive and kept her busy from sun up to sun down, answering e-mails and entering names into spreadsheets.

According to Jones' son, the packages have begun to trickle into Kalsu, an area south and east of Baghdad, where the unit was deployed for 15 months. These included four sent by volunteers with the Scott Vallely Soldiers Memorial Fund.

Sometimes adopted family letters from Montana have come before actual family mail.

"One soldier shared with my son that his wife is in the doghouse as adopt-a-soldier mail beat hers," Jones said.

She said her family receives telephone calls from her son about every 7 to 10 days. His unit has limited access to e-mail due to overcrowding until the brigade they are replacing leaves at the end of the month.

The overlap allows the new arrivals to learn from the veterans of the past 15 months in the area.

"They work seven days a week," Jones said. "They never know what day it is."

But they all know when to go to mail call, a major highlight for soldiers as they finish up stressful days which stretch to 10 or 12 hours.

It was that vision that set Jones on her mission when Todd was deployed on his to Iraq after joining the Army about a year and a half ago. She began with a simple plastic bag full of names from which people draw a soldier for adoption.

Even with the idea spreading, Jones has no fear of running out of soldiers for interested people to adopt. She has others waiting when she finishes this unit.

Jones said she has gotten a lot of feedback from those who have signed on.

"They are having so much fun with this," she said.

Jones said one man called and said he needed two more names, because a box he set out in his store was overflowing with goods donated by the public for his adopted soldier.

"The Nite Owl Restaurant called," Jones said. "They were setting up a box in the restaurant and wanted the company's address. This just keeps spreading."

Jones shares mails she receives like one from Meredith Sillers who joined the effort from Parker, Texas. She described how meaningful the experience was for herself and her children who made holiday cards and pictures for their adopted soldier.

Her story took a twist when she was rushing to mail their heavy package and got pulled over for speeding by a policeman in an unmarked car. Luckily, the officer was a veteran who showed her mercy when she showed him her package addressed to PFC Matthew Otis.

"He said 'I'm an ex-Marine. You have no idea how much this kind of thing means to our troops. God bless you for doing this."

The officer warned her to be more careful in the future and walked away without issuing a citation.

"Now is that God's blessing or what," Sillers asked in her e-mail to Jones.

She added that her family was excited to make at least a small difference in Matthew's life. Jones, who refers to her work as a ministry, expresses the same sentiment as she watches the ripple she set in motion spread across the country.

She said that she has gained peace of mind from helping soldiers like her son, serving their country so far from home.

"It's so nice that we can do something so easy," Jones said.

People interested in adopting a soldiers may contact Jones at (406) 837-1088 or by e-mail at Bigforkjones@montanasky.net.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com