USS Abraham Lincoln’s (CVN 72) First Class Petty Officer’s Association is putting together a special treat this holiday season for their shipmates overseas.

Collection bins are now open in the ship’s personnel office and the First Class Mess for Sailors who wish to donate items to brighten the lives of fellow Sailors serving in Individual Augmentee (IA) billets.

“I work with the people going IA every day, and we’ve got quite a few (from Lincoln) who are going to be overseas during the holidays,” said Personnel Specialist 1st Class John Smith, Lincoln’s assistant IA coordinator and the driving force behind the donation program.

“We really appreciate the care packages we get on the ship, but we’re not in the desert or getting shot at,” Smith said.  “These are the people that we work with and we’re here to support them. They’re going to be coming back to the ship after their tour and I just felt like this is the right thing to do.”

Smith said that Lincoln currently has a number of Sailors serving in IA billets in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as places like Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Regardless of where they might be, chances are their access to everyday items is limited.

“Toiletries like toothpaste, hand lotion, and lip balm are always welcome because it’s just too hard to get them in some of the remote places,” said Lt. Cmdr. Michael Whitt, Lincoln’s administration officer. Whitt served as an IA for six months at Camp Phoenix in Baghdad last year.

“Christmas cards are another great one—not just that you write on, but blank ones, so that they can write to other people, because you just can’t get them there,” Whitt said.

Whitt added that magazines, books, microwave popcorn, and mini-footballs are always a big hit with Sailors who may not have access to a Navy Exchange.

Having spent a holiday season in Iraq, he has experienced firsthand the kind of difference a simple care package can make in the life of a service member overseas.

“It’s a great and worthy cause that the First Class Association is undertaking,” Whitt said. “I was there over Christmas and to have someone send a box full of little trinkets really meant a lot because we just didn’t have any of those things.”

Smith is working with the other first class petty officers aboard Lincoln to establish additional locations for drop boxes around the ship, including one on the brow to make donations more convenient for Sailors returning from liberty.

The First Class Petty Officer’s Association plans to wrap up the drive soon, so that the care packages can be shipped and reach their destinations by Christmas.

“I really wish and hope people will remember this when they go out on liberty or to the ship’s store and bring something back for donation,” Smith said. “If everyone on this ship put in one thing, we could make the holidays better for a lot of people.”