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JAKOB SCHILLER / Daily News

Sandy Mendez, an investigator with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and chairwoman for the agency’s family activity committee, is co-organizing an Adopt a Soldier program to send care packages to soldiers who will be serving during the upcoming holidays. Mendez said she would like the program to send 500 packages. The deadline to nominate a soldier and make a contribution is Nov. 8.

What started out as one mom trying to reach out to other local military families has blossomed into a small support group and one BIG project aimed at delivering holiday cheer to Southwest Floridians serving in the armed forces.

Starting today, Christmas trees decked out in red, white and blue will grace Collier County Sheriff’s Office substations and other county government offices, including Everglades City Hall, as part of Adopt a Soldier.

Aimed at getting holiday care packages to local U.S. military men and women serving around the world, the program is a joint effort between a group of Collier military moms and the Sheriff’s Office.

The Christmas trees will have cards with the names of Southwest Floridians in active duty, similar to the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program, so residents will be able to pick out a recipient by name, gender or even by specific branch of the military.

“We want to make sure that every name that goes off that tree, and every soldier gets a box,” said Cpl. Sandy Mendez. “We want to make sure everybody gets something.”

People can put together care packages on their own, or for a $25 donation, which will cover the cost the items in the care packages and shipping, Adopt a Soldier volunteers will fill the holiday package, she said. All the packages will include a small camouflage colored heart-shaped pillow.

The program has already started to get lots of donations and sponsors, said Mendez, but the main priority is to obtain military service personnel names and addresses to get them the care packages.

“We really need soldiers’ names for referrals,” said Mendez, pointing out that they only have 20 names. “The goal is 500.”

For military moms Beth Jones, Alice Magnelli and Inga Mathura the fact that the program is picking up steam reaffirms their newly formed sisterhood.

JAKOB SCHILLER / Daily News

Sandy Mendez has already started collecting some of the items requested by soldiers for her Adopt a Solider program which has the goal of sending 500 care packages to soldiers who will be serving during the upcoming holidays.

The small group formed a few months ago, after a story ran in the Naples Daily News about Magnelli trying to connect with other military families in Collier and Lee counties.

Mathura and Jones made contact with Magnelli, and the three women have been meeting twice a month since June.

“We don’t usually have an agenda,” said Magnelli. “We just talk.”

It was during one of those talks that the idea for Adopt a Soldier started taking shape. Once they put the idea down on paper Jones, who works for the Sheriff’s Office, made the initial inquiry.

Pitching the program was the hard part because they didn’t know if the department would help, but they said the response was pleasantly surprising.

“The support from the sheriff, the undersheriff and the agency has been tremendous,” Jones said.

Collier Cpl. Travis Henderson, who received similar packages from friends and family while serving in Iraq with the 651 MP Company of the National Guard, said the program is a great idea.

“I got so much support (from friends, family and coworkers),” said Henderson, adding that there were certain items sent to him that became indispensable.

“Friends sent a better cleaning kit (to clean his weapons) and a bottle of Febreze to keep the under-armor civilized” Other items that Henderson found useful were beef jerky, Pop-Tarts, baby wipes and bug spray, to fight off sand fleas.

Simple stuff that doesn’t need to be refrigerated, he said.

On a lighter note, Henderson said, the one thing he could have done without were the pounds of candy he received.

“It was appreciated, but you couldn’t (even) give it away,” said Henderson.

The deadline for donations and soldier names’ submission is Nov. 8.

For more information about Adopt a Soldier, to donate or to give a soldiers name and address, contact Cpl. Mendez at (239) 793-9208 or e-mail sandyloyd@colliersheriffs.net. Also visit www.colliersheriff.org.