The Bayonne City Council recently paid tribute to Soldiers’ Angels, a group that has been sending letters and packages to U.S. troops wherever they are deployed in the world.
In a resolution on Oct. 26, the council said, “This nation is kept strong and free by the loyal citizens who preserve our precious heritage through their positive declarations and actions; and whereas our deployed service members have answered their nation’s call to service courageously by defending our freedoms in foreign lands.”
Raeann Hempel started writing soldiers in combat zones around the world more than a decade ago, sending packages and words of encouragement to keep up their spirits and to make them aware that people in the United States were aware of the sacrifices these soldiers were making.
“I wanted them to know they weren’t forgotten,” Hempel said, seated with her sister, Nora Elliot in the lobby of Bayonne City Hall where they were selling various items in order to raise funds for packages to send.
This comes at a time when it appears that more U.S. service people will be deployed overseas. Last August, the New Jersey National Guard unit stationed in Jersey City with members from Bayonne, Jersey City and other parts of Hudson County were deployed to the Persian Gulf to guard naval military installations.
Hempel will also be setting up her table at the Bayonne Medical Center on Nov. 19 and soon plans to set up in Union City, Jersey City and West New York.
In 2010, Hempel received The President’s Volunteer Service Award for her work in providing comfort to military men and women overseas.
State Senator and Union City Mayor Brian Stack acknowledged her efforts in 2012. She also received the Gold Wing Award from the Soldiers’ Angels organization, and in 2013, Gov. Christopher Christie commended her longstanding commitment to service in her community.
“You have impacted countless lives,” Christie wrote. “Learning of the concern and endeavors of compassionate people like you makes me proud to be a New Jerseyan.”
As a volunteer, Hempel sent care packages and letters to deployed service members, and the group nationally has supplied the wounded with First Response Packs directly at the Combat Support Hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan and the major military hospital in Germany. The group has also provided care and comfort to those in stateside military and Veterans’ Administration facilities.
The group provides emergency aid to military families in need and has partnered with the Department of Defense to provide voice-controlled/adaptive laptops to about 6,000 severely wounded service members, as well as other services to military people on leave or in emergency situations.
Hempel got so involved with the effort that she eventually became the captain for the state of New Jersey, and led the effort to send thousands of letters and care packages to the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We also got involved with the veterans’ hospital in East Orange,” she said. “Every couple of months, we send out letters, and we also get Easter things for the children of the troops here in New Jersey.”
She corresponds regularly with as many as 300 soldiers, and has received letters of thanks.
“They appreciate the packages,” she said. “We send them pieces of home.”
Packages she sends include cookies, candy, phone cards, playing cards, toiletries, games, books, sunscreen, writing materials, and other small things soldiers need.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.