Yarmouth Woman Sends Hundreds Of Care Packages To Troops

YARMOUTH (CBS) -- Linda Sullivan is touching the heart of a soldier one box at a time. The Cape Cod woman is on a mission mailing care packages stuffed with some basic supplies and heartfelt letters to make life a bit easier for our troops overseas.

She packs the boxes with socks, foot warmers, hand warmers, toiletries and high protein snacks. Sullivan says, "It's a wonderful feeling to know you're touching the heart of a soldier, it really is. To me it's important for them to know that they're cared for."

WBZ-TV's Kathy Curran reports.

The idea for Linda's packages was born from a tragedy.

She promised to send a package to the Marine son of a family friend, but Nicholas Xiarhos was killed in Afghanistan in July of 2009 and Linda never sent that package.

She's been filling boxes with supplies from her Sandwich home ever since.

She looks back on the day she received the sad news, "I just went, 'Oh my God.' And I thought, 'Why didn't I? Why didn't I?' And it was too late. My heart still breaks for Nick's family and for every family that pays the ultimate sacrifice."

Being touched by that sacrifice is now part of the daily motivation behind Big Nick's Gifts To Our Troops. It's a one woman run charity and every penny and item donated helps the men and women of our military.

You can tell by the words of those on the receiving end one small box is making a huge difference. In one letter a woman serving in Afghanistan writes "our hearts swell with love and pride that one woman would consider us in her thoughts. Thank you so much!"

Linda has mailed 567 care packages since Nick Xiarhos was killed in action.

Every penny and item donated helps our troops. Big Nick's Charity website is: http://bignicksgift2ourtroops.org/index.html