Operation Adopt A Soldier to hold donation drive a year after headquarters burned

WILTON, N.Y. (NEWS10) – This Saturday, Operation Adopt A Soldier is set to host a drop-in donation drive at its temporary office on Route 9 in Wilton. The organization has been working there ever since a fire made its main base of operations on Route 50 inoperable.

The drive is set from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, out front at 891 Saratoga Road (part of Route 9) near its intersection with Ballard Road. To keep things socially distanced within COVID-19 standards, donors are asked to enter through one end of a horseshoe-shaped driveway, drop off donations, and exit the other side of the driveway.

The organization is accepting donations of non-perishable food, snacks, candy, toiletries, energy bars, CDs and DVDs, paperback books, puzzle books and games, sports equipment, over-the-counter health goods and phone cards. Visit operationadoptasoldier.org for a full list.

All donated goods go towards comfort kits sent to U.S. military personnel serving in high-conflict areas. Shirts and sweatshirts with Adopt A Soldier slogans will also be for sale.

The fire at Operation Adopt A Soldier’s Route 50 headquarters destroyed nearly everything the group had at the time in August 2019. That included 260 comfort kits waiting to be shipped.

“I know it sounds like an old cliché, but it seems like yesterday when we lost our long-time home on Route 50,” said OAAS Founder/Co-chair Cliff Seguin. “But our members, families and friends rallied around the organization so quickly that we were in our Route 9 office within a week of the fire. Then we got hit with a double whammy when we closed in mid-March due to the coronavirus, and then were revived in June when we were allowed to reopen.”

Hannaford supermarkets in the North Country are doing their part to help Adopt A Soldier, too. Locations in Glens Falls, South Glens Falls, Queensbury and Hudson Falls are sponsoring a donation campaign running through the month of August. Collection bins can be found behind front end cash registers.

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