A junior from Westfield High School is doing all she can to help out the troops and that means 800 ‘Thank You’ bags that Jillian Battles has been able to collect for the third year in a row.
“Whenever I see someone in uniform or recognize they have served, I go up to them and thank them and I want to spread that kindness in our community,” Jillian Battles said.
Jillian Battles, a Westfield High junior, spent Friday filling bags with donations she was able to collect for troops overseas and local veterans this holiday season. She told Western Mass News she was inspired by Project 351, a statewide organization that brings eighth graders together for community service projects. Battles said they were based in Boston and wanted to bring the giving closer to home.
“They didn’t really come to the western side of the state, and I wanted to take care of our western Mass. veterans and our troops, and I was like if they can do it, I can do it too,” Jillian Battles explained.
That is exactly what she did. With the help of the community, she was able to fill 800 bags of donations that include games, snacks, toiletries, and more. Battles said she has learned a lot over the past three years, in particular: how helping others is a team effort.
“Our whole community came together. Our street was filled with cars just to be able to get all of the donations from our house to here. We had a bunch of volunteers stay and help line everything up on the tables, create an assembly line,” Jillian Battles noted.
Jillian’s Mother, Jennifer Battles, told us her daughter is no stranger to helping others.
“We have a lot of elderly neighbors. Jillian gets up at five in the morning. She shovels the walkways and plows driveways for people. We don’t ever ask for anything. We just do it,” Jennifer Battles said.
Jennifer told us why it is so important to help veterans and the troops.
“It’s truly a community effort that is based around Jillian and her hard work to make this happen and our soldiers are everything to us and if it weren’t for them, then we’re for our veterans, we wouldn’t have the things that we have,” Jennifer Battles added.
Typically, out of the 800 filled bags, 400 of them go to area veterans and the remaining 400 bags go to those fighting overseas. This year is different.
“Given the unfortunate situation with Israel and Hamas, I am going to be giving about 600 of the bags to troops who are deploying to the Middle East, and I get to meet each of them individually and hand them their bag as they are about to leave,” Jillian Battles explained.
Jillian said the remaining 200 bags will be going to area veterans. All of the bags come with personalized cards.
“I really hope when our troops see them, it warms their hearts. They can have them with them at all times and remind them they are love they are appreciated,” Jillian Battles added.
Jillian began collecting all of those donations on July 4 and had drop-off locations at several Westfield schools and businesses in the area.
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