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09/07/2016 08:30 AMOn Aug. 30, Lynn Mann got the ride of a lifetime, catching a bird’s-eye view of the Thames River and Connecticut shoreline from a Black Hawk UH-60. Manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft, the four-blade, twin-engine helicopter has been used in troop transports, casualty evacuations, and search-and-rescue missions in Iraq, Somalia, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and throughout the Middle East.
“I flew from the Army Aviation Support Facility in Windsor Locks to Camp Niantic Army National Guard Base,” says Lynn, “as part of the Boss Lift—a privilege I am so very humbled and honored to have been selected for.”
The Employer Support of the National Guard (ESGR) Boss Lift typically takes employers on a tour of National Guard and Reserve training facilities to experience some of what’s involved in military duty. Lynn, who has worked for years coordinating care packages for soldiers overseas, was nominated to participate in the latest lift.
“I toured the Regional Training Institute, saw a military vehicle display, witnessed a military dog training demonstration, and practiced on an electronic firing range,” she says. “Seeing all of this firsthand motivates me further to fundraise for Shoreline Community Women’s Boxes for Soldiers. As long as deployments exist, the need will continue to raise awareness for these dedicated men and women serving in our armed forces.”
‘Instantly I Got Involved with Them’
For the past two years, Lynn has served as assistant to the director of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, where her main focus is on monthly after-hours events, growing membership, and securing sponsorships for Chamber events. Earlier in her career, she worked as an insurance agent.
“I grew up in Great Harbor in Guilford and was an adventurous kid who loved being outdoors,” she says.
The oldest of six children, she says growing up in a big family is the best.
“It was amazing! I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have four brothers, and we were always out on the water boating and sailing. With all those boys around, I couldn’t be a girl!” she jokes. “I had to be a boy.’
Her sister—the youngest in the family—was born when Lynn was in high school.
“Our mother was a stay-at-home mom, and dad worked for Southern New England Telephone. They were active in the Knights of Columbus and very involved in St. George’s Church. I was raised around the military, my grandfather having served in the cavalry and my father in the Korean War.”
After high school, Lynn studied business administration and marketing at the University of New Haven and eventually moved to Florida, when she met a group of women who would have a lasting impact on her.
“I came across a military moms prayer group at a demonstration,” she says. “Instantly I got involved with them, fundraising, raising awareness in the community, and putting together care packages for soldiers. When I moved back to Connecticut, I looked for a similar group up here, but couldn’t find one doing this kind of thing on a large scale.”
Lynn did find Shoreline Community Women (SCW) in Clinton, which had been assembling and shipping packages to soldiers.
“I took it further.”
Thinking Inside the Box
Today, she says, SCW coordinates packages for deployed service men and women from Connecticut towns as far east as Ledyard, south down to Stratford, up in North Haven, and everywhere in between. Care packages are sent wherever troops are deployed, including Afghanistan, Africa, Iraq, and Pakistan.
“We really couldn’t do what we do for SCW without the generous people of Clinton and those throughout the state,” she says.
Founded in 1973, SCW undertakes community service projects in the areas of education, health, home life, arts, culture, and the environment.
“We go around to where there are large groups, such as the Elks, Rotary Club, American Legion, and schools, and they are all very generous with collection drives and monetary donations. Several area churches in surrounding towns have been involved with our Boxes for Soldiers project for years. We typically get people we know with a van or a box truck to pick up the collections and put all this stuff in [SCW member] Cindy Stevens’s garage. Sometimes I make a couple of trips in my car, which [when full of donations] looks like a clown car.”
Some of the biggest support, says Lynn, comes from some of the littlest volunteers.
“Clinton schools do a lot for Boxes for Soldiers. The children make cards, and these are the things the soldiers tell us they love the most,” she says. “We enclose about six or eight per package.”
Lynn, Cindy, and other SCW members share lists of items that soldiers would enjoy receiving, and when the women go into Clinton schools for students’ 100th-day celebrations, they leave with armloads of books, food, and personal care items that students and teachers have brought in to donate.
“Our goal here is to brighten a soldier’s day by providing something for the body, the mind, and the belly,” says Lynn.
Three of the favorite things for soldiers to receive are baby wipes, foot warmers, and Pop-Tarts.
Lynn explains. “Activate a foot warmer and wrap it in baby wipes and you have an instant hot shower,” she says. “As for Pop-Tarts, they’re portable. They fit easily into the pocket of an ACU [army combat uniform] and heat up nicely on the engine of a Humvee.”
Other items on the most-wanted list include white or dark socks, hand sanitizer, disposable cameras, bandages, small bottles of shampoo and mouthwash, deodorant, lip balm, sunscreen, insect repellent, pens, notecards, playing cards, hand and foot warmers, AA and AAA batteries, protein and granola bars, instant coffee, tea bags, peanut butter, paperback books, CDs, beef jerky, chewing gum, candy, and trail mix.
“After being treated to an MRE—Meals Ready to Eat—during the Boss Lift,” says Lynn, “I could see just how much soldier care package items for the belly will be enjoyed! It’s the least I can do to thank them for their great service to our nation.”
Every time a sub deploys from the base in Groton, says Lynn, each sailor gets a small care package to open at the halfway point to their destination.
“There’s a midway celebration, and they get to open packets of things like adult coloring packets, colored pencils, sharpeners, and batteries for their electronic devices,” says Lynn. “We bypass the cost of postage for these care packages, and we keep them small, because space on a submarine is very limited.”
Lynn also likes to make sure that children know how much their gifts and cards are appreciated and how far they’ve traveled.
“I bring in artifacts from different parts of world for the kids to touch and feel and pass around, and I read letters that soldiers have written back to them,” she says. “I also have active-duty officers come in and talk to them, and the kids get a real sense of how much their gestures are appreciated and what soldiers need.”
For her part, Lynn has been invited to homecoming ceremonies for returning soldiers whose units SCW has shipped to.
“Watching that aircraft pull up; seeing children holding signs; seeing dogs dressed in red, white, and blue; and greeting soldiers who’ve recovered at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and hearing how well they’re doing is so rewarding and touching for me,” she says.
Her own son enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps a few years after she began working on Boxes for Soldiers. Now 24 and studying law enforcement at the University of New Haven, Ben served as an infantryman for four years.
One of the most moving times for Lynn was watching him take the oath.
“I was with him when he was sworn in.”
Along with her daughter, 26-year-old Molly, Lynn also volunteers for Fallen Patriots, a group that provides assistance—particularly with college tuition—for the children of fallen soldiers and disabled veterans. Other military-related causes she’s involved in include Quilts of Valor, in Madison, and the Cromwell chapter of Blue Star Mothers of America.
In her free time, Lynn cooks, swims competitively, explores the country’s national parks, and nurtures a secret love of vintage cars.
On her bucket list? “The Grand Canyon—I haven’t gotten out there yet.”
For more information on Boxes for Soldiers, email lynnsusanmann@gmail.com.