Two retired Marines from the Shawano area plan hiking the entire Mountain Bay Trail this weekend, raising money to send care packages for service members overseas. Shannon Anker and Chad Hintz are two friends who have been through high school and boot camp together. Both men served overseas with the Marines from 1991 to 1999. Now they’re working together again to bring a little taste of home to troops deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. They call themselves “Old Dogs that Care.”
Beginning this Friday, they’ll be marching from Wausau to Green Bay, where they plan to arrive Sunday. This will be a military style march complete with combat boots and 80 to 100 pound packs. Hintz says they’ve been training. “We’re not young anymore. So, our physical qualifications aren’t what they were when we were in the Marine Corps but we’ve been trying to get to where we’re able to do the task and we’re going to make it whether were walking or crawling.”
Anker says most people that haven’t served in the military have a hard time understanding how much a care package means to a soldier. The two “old dogs” have received about $300 so far but they hope to raise around $1,000 because it comes to around 50 bucks to send a care package overseas. They say one hundred percent of all donations will be used to send items we, at home take for granted. Donations can be sent to The Military Support Group @ P.O. Box 286 Cecil, Wi 54111.
WTCH