With July temperatures hitting 115 degrees, or higher, extreme heat is part of the burden soldiers stationed in Iraq must learn to cope with.
A Danville church has decided to help as many members of the military stay as cool as possible, getting a “cool scarf” into the hands and onto the necks of as many American soldiers as possible.
Barbara Bunting, a member of Trinity United Methodist Church, heard about the project through Soldiers’ Angels, a nonprofit group that sends a variety of care packages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
She recruited other members of the church to help, and now they meet every Wednesday evening in the church’s Sunday school room, where 20 or 30 men and women cut, sew, iron, stuff and package the scarves.
In the month or so they’ve been meeting, they’ve sent 547 scarves to Soldiers’ Angels, which sends them on to different units in the Middle East.
The ingenious scarves are narrow tubes of cotton fabric partially stuffed with nontoxic polyacrylamide granules — the same kind of granules that keep potted plants moist.
When the scarves are soaked in cold water, the granules expand into a gel and, looped around the neck, can help cool down a soldier for up to 15 hours, even in extreme heat.
“Here, they’d last for five days,” said Chris Davis, as she delivered a pile of sewn scarves to a group that was turning them right side out.
Marion Box said more volunteers are always welcome.
“They can work with us on Wednesday, or work at home or start up their own group,” Box said. “We’d be happy to tell them how to get started.”
Directions for making the scarves are available at Trinity United Methodist Church, or people can call Marion Box at (434) 792-6581, Barbara Bunting at (434) 836-7033 or Norma Martin at 822-2123 for information about how to get started.
For more information about Soldiers’ Angels, www.soldiersangels.org.
• Contact Denice Thibodeau at dthibodeau@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7985.
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