The Bomber Girls Ladies Riding Club brought cookies and cheer to about 20 of Fort Stewart’s Warrior Transition Battalion soldiers Tuesday.
Club members, of which seven are active, routinely raise funds to send care packages to deployed soldiers year-round and have helped support soldiers and their families in other ways. Club vice president Jill Ward previously said the group has volunteered through the Red Cross for Services to Armed Forces and has greeted and bid troops farewell from Hunter Army Airfield. The Bomber Girls also has participated in Wreaths for Warriors Walk at Fort Stewart.
Club president Cindy Hashaw said the Bomber Girls brought Fort Stewart’s wounded warriors what remained of 3,700 dozen cookies, most of which were sent to soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We’re just trying to bring it (troops serving) to people’s attention,” Hashaw said. “So people won’t forget.”
About 1,100 dozen cookies from this last big “batch” were made by Indiana residents, Hashaw said. She said a friend of hers in Westville, Ind., lost a son, Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua H. Birchfield, 24, to the war in Afghanistan one year ago. Hashaw’s friend encouraged her neighbors to bake and send cookies to the Bomber Girls for distribution to the troops. Letters and cut-out hearts from Valparaiso, Indiana’s children and adults accompanied the cookies, she said. Hashaw and club sergeant-at-arms Teresa Aines shared some of the “thank you troops” letters with WTB soldiers.
Hashaw said the Bomber Girls gets a lot of support from other riding clubs and hopes to garner support from people outside of the biker community.
“Everyone knows someone who has a loved one serving in the military,” she said.
“They’ve told us when they (soldiers) do get the cookies, it makes their day,” Aines said.
Hashaw and Aines said the riding club is just trying to send “some fun from home” by sending cookies and other items like kiddie pools, beach balls and leis for July 4th or movies, popcorn and candy for “movie night” mailings. At other times the Bomber Girls have sent hygienic products, such as sunscreen and powder.
Recently, the club held an online photo contest titled “Love My Soldier.” The photos are on display at Grainger Honda on Chatham Parkway in Savannah.
The next Bomber Girls fundraiser for troop care packages will be their fifth annual Rumblin’ Riot car and bike show. The event will be held from 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, March 12, at Oglethorpe Speedway on Highway 80 in Garden City.
Registration costs $15 per entry. Cash awards of $150 for the Bomber Girls choice award and $100 for the people’s choice award will be presented at 2 p.m.