Staff from the Road Commission from Oakland County (RCOC) recently teamed up with the Oakland County Bar Association to collect donations for our servicemen and women stationed overseas.
(L-R) RCOC Construction Inspector Patrick Castillo, attorney Michael
Schloff, Oakland County Bar Association Veterans’ Committee Chair Christina Darrow and RCOC Vice Chairman Eric Wilson as they load items for the veterans into a Road Commission truck.
This is the fourth consecutive year RCOC has been involved in this effort. The collaboration, known as Americans Thank Our Troops, has been on-going for 11 years and includes many organizations, businesses and individuals. In involves sending care packages to the troops.
More than $10,000 in donations has been collected since December 1, 2014. Numerous items were also donated, according to the press release.
Troops will receive food, personal items, reading materials, entertainment items, puzzles, games, clothing, sundries, letters from elementary school students and more.
The effort is spearheaded by two Vietnam veterans: RCOC Board Member Eric Wilson and Oakland County Bar Association member Michael Schloff. The pair joined forces again as an effort to show appreciation and support for those making the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
“It is important to remember and honor our military servicemen and women daily,” Wilson said. “This effort is our way of sending appreciation to our troops and remembering their daily sacrifice. We thank them for their service. I also want to thank the Road Commission employees who generously donated items and money to the effort.”
“Thanks to many extraordinary volunteers, we’re able to collect, store, package and mail items to our troops serving overseas,” Schloff added. “This year’s packages will benefit 15 units with ties to Michigan. So far, 166 boxes have been sent. Generous donors also cover expenses for everything from storage unit costs to warehouse space to packaging material to the cost to mail each package. There is zero overhead for this effort.”
In addition to Wilson and Schloff, Patrick Castillo from RCOC’s Construction Division volunteered to deliver a truckload of items purchased with cash donated through the Bar Association’s campaign to the Bar Association’s offices in West Bloomfield Township. Monetary donations were used to purchase goods through the commissary at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County.
Road Commission staff donated numerous items that were collected in drop boxes around the agency. “All the donations, time, and hard work by the volunteers is greatly appreciated and a good way to show how much our home team appreciates our servicemen and women,” Wilson noted.
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