ABERDEEN — Township resident Kathy MacCutcheon is a mom on a mission.
Her 21-year-old son Christopher Mac- Cutcheon graduated from basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., and was deployed to Afghanistan, 10 miles away from the Pakistan border, in April.
“When you see these hundreds of kids all dressed in uniform, their precision in line, yelling at the top of their lungs, ‘I am an American soldier, I will fight for my country, I will never leave a fallen comrade,’ the hair on the back of your neck stands up,” said MacCutcheon, holding a keychain with a photo of her son on it. “You’re looking at them and realizing, ‘Oh my God, they are all going. Walk a mile in the [shoes of a] mother of a soldier … to be a mother of a soldier is scary. I was sitting there at the graduation and realized he’s going to go and there’s nothing I can do about it. When he was on his way, I said, ‘We have to do something.’ ”
Aberdeen resident Kathy MacCutcheon (r) started her own nonprofit organization called Help Us, Help Them to support military personnel serving overseas. MacCutcheon’s 21-year-old son Christopher is currently stationed in Afghanistan. JACQUELINE HLAVENKA That’s when she took some action.
MacCutcheon started her own grassroots organization called Help Us, Help Them, a nonprofit that provides care packages for troops serving overseas.
“This is not a billion-dollar thing,” she said. “I just want to get some of these soldiers some of the things they need so their stay over there is a little less taxing on them.”
At her Aberdeen home, MacCutcheon is collecting necessities and comfort items such as bed sheets, blankets, toiletries, sweets, magazines and cards for soldiers.
Through her efforts and donations from the community, she has sent 350 boxes to Afghanistan to date, totaling 700 pounds of goods and supplies.
“I just want people to realize there are hundreds and thousands of our kids over there in need,” MacCutcheon said.
Her son Christopher is a graduate of Matawan Regional High School (MRHS) and Brookdale Community College, Lincroft. He is now part of the 101st Archangel Troop, 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment.
“Being as far up in the mountains in a third-world country where you don’t know where anything is, and everybody there just wants to kill you … if we can make it easier on them, the better.”
The inspiration for Help Us, Help Them started with a fundraising event at The Kat Shack on Main Street in Matawan, where MacCutcheon works as a bartender. She collaborated with her general manager, Jennifer Moler, on creating fliers and a drop-off donation center, as well as raising awareness about the many young men and women from the Bayshore area serving the country.
“I said maybe we should start a nonprofit, and we started looking into it and the ball started rolling,” MacCutcheon said. “Then once I got a [tax] ID number from the IRS, we held a benefit.”
Pictures of soldiers from all walks of life are also placed in 8-by-10 picture frames on the walls of the bar.
“I want to put faces to these soldiers,” MacCutcheon said. “They are kids … and what gets me through a lot is that this is what you think about in the morning, when you go to sleep, when you’re in the car … I focus my energy on let’s help them.”
As a result, area businesses and residents have reached out to support the cause. Washington Engine Company of Matawan and Ted’s Collision Auto Repair of Laurence Harbor mailed out the first 100 care packages at their expense.
“That’s how we got 90 percent of the boxes over there,” she said. “If they didn’t do that, we would only have one-third of the boxes over there. They paid for hundreds of dollars of mailing in the beginning.”
Each soldier is issued an Army Post Office (APO) number, which MacCutcheon said took six weeks to receive. When sending out the boxes, the process requires the sender to write out a form with the APO number, weight and contents of the package, a lengthy and labor-intensive process, she explained.
However, the hard work of MacCutcheon and Moler has paid off.
“When the first boxes got over there, it was one of the first phone calls I got,” she said. “They have to stand on lines because they don’t have cell phones and very limited communication. He [Christopher] said, ‘Mom, I’ve been standing on line and it’s pouring rain here’ and you can hear in the background ‘Mac’s Jersey mom rocks!’ It was about 16 boxes, and they got it all on the same day. That’s why we started the nonprofit.”
As a mother of a soldier, MacCutcheon also started Help Us, Help Them to honor the memory of soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice, like Cpl. Brian M. Connelly, who died near Adhamiya, Iraq, on Feb. 26. Connelly, of Union Beach, was killed by a roadside bomb.
The Connelly family and the Mac- Cutcheon family remain close friends and provide each other support.
“When my friends lost their son, the wheels started turning,” she said. “My son was already planning on going in [the Army], and it was horrifying.”
MacCutcheon is also close with the Marrocco family of Staten Island, N.Y., whose son, Brendan Marrocco, 22, lost his arms and legs due to a roadside bomb in 2009 — and survived.
“They [his family] are constantly bringing us stuff, and we did a benefit for Brendan,” she said.
To raise local awareness, Kathy went to a Matawan Borough Council meeting on Dec. 9 and requested approval to hang a banner across Main Street that reads, “Support Our Troops.” The council unanimously waived all fees for the sign and will provide the banner free of charge.
“I drive up and down Main Street and I don’t see a yellow bow,” she said. “I’m not asking anybody to give me anything or bring me anything. All I want is for people to remember they are there. When a soldier comes home and drives down Main Street, they feel heroic.”
MacCutcheon also helps families who may not know how to send items overseas, and area residents who may not have access to a car to transport the items to the post office.
“I’m just trying to help these soldiers who have families in need or that don’t know how or don’t know what to send,” she said. “Ask me. ” Donations for the troops can bemailed or dropped off at The Kat Shack, 254 Main St., Matawan.