Help for area soldiers deployed in Iraq came Thursday one hoagie at a time.
"It went wonderful," said Hope Benning, whose brother, Brian Weaver, is among the 166 soldiers from Company B, Second Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 56th Stryker Brigade, Pennsylvania Army National Guard. "One guy came in, got four hoagies and gave $200."
The daylong sale, organized through the Sankertown VFW Ladies Auxiliary, raised money to help send overseas care packages that already are sitting at the armory.
"You don't realize how bad it is over there until you have someone over there," said Altoona resident Nikki Ferrucci.
Ferrucci's older brother, Lou Ferrucci Jr., is a full-time guardsman stationed at Fort Indiantown Gap, and a veteran of a 2006 tour in Kosovo and Hurricane Katrina relief in 2005. She said she believes as the war has gone on, people sometimes forget there are men and women away from home in harm's way.
She said one person bought a hoagie Thursday and left a $100.
It's that spirit of community support that family members said helps them get through the separation from their soldiers.
"It's keeping me going," Carla Weaver said. "It's keeping my mind off of it."
The Weaver family said they try to keep in contact as much as they can with their 23-year-old son, a driver of one of the Brigade's Stryker vehicles, through e-mail and the occasional phone call.
"Not as often as I'd like to," said his father, Wayne Weaver.
"You would think you'd get used to it because it's the second time," said Somerset County resident Judy Floyd, whose 26-year-old son A.J. Floyd is serving his second tour in Iraq attached to Bravo Company. She and her husband, Bill Floyd, made the drive to help out Thursday.
"It's scary just having him over there," she said.
Bill Floyd said the soldiers "were slightly blessed" to come from a region of the country where support for the troops still is strong.
"Here, as well as our area, it's fantastic, I think," he said, adding churches, groups and individuals are constantly looking for ways to help the soldiers.
Organizers estimate more than 800 hoagies were sold Thursday, and because everything that went into them was donated by companies such as U.S. Foods Inc., Sheetz, Subway, Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Sam's Club, every dollar that came in will go to seeing that soldiers receive a bit of home.
Still, from the look on the faces of those with loved ones in uniform, the day everyone is really looking forward to is when the troops return at the end of September, which still is a long way off.
When Jean Dively, whose grandson, Brandon Fink, of Claysburg is deployed, watches television, any mention of a bombing in Iraq has her worrying.
"I just sit and wait for someone to come to the door, and you don't know how you're going to react," she said. "So far, so good."
