For Immediate Release

Contact: Robert Waggener, Editor

Phone: (307) 766-3571

E-mail: robertw@uwyo.edu

Date: Oct. 30, 2006

Groups join forces to support Wyoming troops in Middle East  

                University of Wyoming ROTC cadets, 4-H members, Albany County agricultural groups and a Cheyenne business have joined efforts to expand an Election Day project to support Wyoming’s troops.

            The groups will place boxes at Albany County polling places during the Nov. 7 general election to collect goods for troops serving in the Middle East. Cards will also be available for citizens to write thank you notes to the soldiers.

            Involved in the Yellow Ribbon project are the Albany County 4-H Junior Leaders and other 4-Hers, Albany County University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service (UW CES), Army ROTC, Albany County Cow-Belles, Albany County Stockgrowers and Crow Creek Meat Processing in Cheyenne.

            4-H is the youth arm of UW CES, and its state offices are in the College of Agriculture.

            The groups were previously involved in several projects to support the troops but this year decided to join efforts.

            “We’re combining forces in an effort to make the project even better,” said Carl Majewski, the supply technician for UW Army ROTC and a volunteer with Albany County 4-H.

            One of the Albany County 4-H Junior Leaders assisting with the project is Majewski’s son, Levi, a junior at Laramie High School.

            “We’re trying to help the troops by sending them something from home. It will also be cool to develop some pen pal relationships,” Levi said.

            Army ROTC cadet Devin Osburn, a College of Agriculture agribusiness management major from Wood Lake, Neb., returned to school last December after a one-year deployment to Iraq.

            “Speaking from experience, I can tell you the soldiers overseas are greatly appreciative of programs such as the Yellow Ribbon project,” Osburn said. “They are happy to receive anything that lets them know people back home are still thinking of them, that they are willing to do what they can to make life for a soldier in combat a little easier.”

            Osburn added, “ROTC is getting involved in the project because we love to support our fellow soldiers. We also know we will be overseas sooner or later and will be grateful to people who support this project.”

            Lu Ann Herkstroeter, president of the Albany County Cow-Belles, said her group, in conjunction with the stockgrowers and Crow Creek Meat, has been sending jerky and thank you cards to the troops since July 4, 2005.

            “That project has grown and grown with the support of the public and, by joining forces with 4-H, CES and ROTC, it will even get bigger,” Herkstroeter said. “We all want to support our troops with something tangible, whether it’s a care package or words of support. We want to warm their hearts as much as the thought of their sacrifice warms ours.”

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