SUMTER, S.C. — Showering Shaw Air Force Base with goodies Thursday as Sumter residents came together to put together treat bags to share with soldiers and airmen on the base. It's an annual event to spread joy during the holiday season.
"I get to come out here and actually package a bag full of love," Sumter resident Cheryl Moye said, smiling.
Moye is a retired service member who spent Thursday packaging goodie bags for airmen and soldiers filled with donated treats from community members like Nancy McCreight.
"I hope that they feel supported," McCreight said. "I hope that they feel that we love and care about them and that they feel our support because we really do appreciate what they do."
"I was actually a military child myself, so I understand having that support, knowing that your community cares about you," Rhonda Evans-Montgomery, an 8th grade English teacher and student council advisor, said.
Evans-Montgomery works at Alice Drive Middle School, where students collected more than 400 candy canes that Evans-Montgomery dropped off for the Shower Shaw with Goodies event.
"It's also good for the students who are doing the donating because it helps them to build compassion and empathy for others," Evans-Montgomery said. "And that's something that we really need more of these days."
"It's been amazing to see the community and Shaw folks working together," Shaw Spouses' Club Advisor Gayle Smith said. "It is tough definitely when you think about your airmen and soldiers who are living in dorms away from their families. It is tough to just, to know that your own family is not here. But the community becomes your family."
Gayle is working with other Shaw Spouses' Club members to package the donations. The event's chair, Cleo Klopfleisch, says the group hopes to collect at least 550 goodie bags to give to every soldier and airman living in the dorm. Klopfleisch said they would give goodie bags to the fire departments and security officers on base if they surpassed the goal.
"It means that we're not forgetting about our soldiers and airmen at Shaw Air Force Base and surrounding, the deployed, the ones living in the barracks, those that are not going home for the holidays. Sumter is our family, and Sumter comes together to show their support," Klopfleisch said. "Their unselfish act of valor, you know, just leaving their families. And unfortunately, the families are often left here even during the holidays. And so it's very important to show them that we support them and love them too and that we appreciate everything that they do for the United States of America."
"Be comfortable in the uncomfortable situation because we are all here together," Shaw Spouses' Club Vice President Sabrina Bowser said. "And we need to hold on to one another because that's sometimes all we need to survive."
Bowser moved to Sumter from Germany in 2019. Bowser says the community "binds it all together that makes you feel like I'm home here."
"And I like that feeling," Bowser said, smiling. "It brings different people from different areas, different continents, different cultures together. And it just shows how diverse Sumter actually is."
Bowser says she heard of Shower Shaw with Goodies, which is happening now for the 31st year. Her husband has been on a short tour for the past five months, and Bowser says he will be gone throughout the holiday season. Bowser says she's using this time to pour into the community that has supported her when she's needed it by volunteering at an event with a long-standing history in the community.
"I just think it's absolutely mesmerizing to me to sustain this and know this is going to continue on in the future and there are more people, more generations working together, and it's just beautiful," Bowser said.
The Shaw Spouses' Club is accepting donations through Sunday.
Drop off items at 207 Mason Croft Drive, or call 803-406-2177 to arrange a pickup.