Their Angels: delivering good

    It started out small, as many good ideas and worthy causes do. Parents and relatives—mothers mostly—with sons and daughters in the military sending letters of support to servicemen and women they had most often never met, but nonetheless felt a certain kinship with. That was in March of 2004, when Marva Lyons, founder of the group known as Their Angels, saw her son James go off to Marine boot camp.
    By October of the following year packages accompanied the letters, 200 packages every month to start with, sent to men and women in every branch of the armed services.
    Now upwards of one hundred volunteers pack 500 packages every month at Hilltop Church of Christ in Richmond. After fifty packages—quart-size baggies holding everything from Band-aids, granola bars and bubble gum to disposable razors, socks and packages of powdered beverages—are filled, they are packed in a shipping box. “On the front line you don’t have a lot of time, so the quart size baggies are perfect for ‘take and go’,” said Lyons. And the boxes never go off without personal notes and letters. “They are letters of encouragement from the home front.”
    From a venture that started with just eight people and a desire to show support for family and for people they have never met, Their Angels has enlisted a mix of military families and members of the community. “I’ve really watched it grow,” said Lyons. “It has taken on a real life of its own. It has been just a wonderful experience and I am so grateful to everyone who has helped Their Angels.”
    If you’d like to lend your support to this worthy cause, Their Angels can always use donations of goods as well as money. Or make plans to attend the 3rd annual Their Angels Luncheon and Silent Auction on Saturday, April 21 beginning at noon at Embassy Suites Napa Valley in Napa. Tickets are $50 each and seating is limited. For more information contact Marva Lyons at (510) 367-6083 or go to theirangels.org.

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