Hattiesburg, MS " 1/34 Brigade Combat Team Soldiers donated two bus loads of household items, to displaced people in the Hattiesburg Miss., area last month.
The toys, blankets and house items were collected from donations by Minnesota students from the St. Cloud, Minn., area. Students from Sauk Rapids, Minn., high school and elementary school collected the items. These items were sent to Hattiesburg on buses that took home Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 136th Combined Arms Battalion based in Moorhead, Minn., for Christmas break.
The items were given to Christian Services Center in Hattiesburg.
"The need is still tremendous, said Bill Prout, co-director of Christian Services Inc., in Hattiesburg. "You look around Hattiesburg you see some damage and it doesn't look that bad.
You get on the Gulf coast and we still have people living in tents in the Bay Waveland area down there that still don't have any idea of when they will be moved into a trailer much less being put into permanent housing."
The Minnesota National Guard Soldiers are among the more than 4,000 of the 1/34 BCT training at Camp Shelby, MS., for deployment to Iraq this spring.