Family is on a mission to help dad’s Guard unit

LANE MATZKE, 3, CAN’T TELL YOU WHAT’S IN THE BOXES stacked up in his living room. But he knows his desert camouflage helmet is appropriate headwear around the boxes. “He wore his helmet when we went to pick up coffee for the soldiers,” his mom, Kim Matzke, says, smiling as Lane’s brother, Garrett, 2, slips on his Army-green helmet.

Their helmets match their dad Shawn’s U.S. Army National Guard uniform dangling from a hanger above the boxes. The uniform constantly reminds Shawn, 27, that he’s not with his infantry unit preparing to leave for Kuwait at the end of the month. Instead, he’s home recovering from four kidney stones that provoked military doctors to deem him combat inefficient. The stones are gone now, but Army doctors worried they could return. Shawn was honorably discharged for medical reasons in April, just seven months after he joined the service.

His separation from his unit depressed Shawn, even though he spent only one weekend a month with the 189 men in the 163rd infantry unit.

“I miss them guys,” he says. “I wish I could be with them.”

Kim knew the best medicine.

“We wanted to do something for the unit because he couldn’t be there,” she says. “So I asked him what he would need if he were there.”

Then she decided to fill boxes with the items Shawn listed and send them to the soldiers.

Shawn listed things like coffee and cough syrup, pens and paper, toothpaste, playing cards and Chapstick. Kim began writing letters to corporations. The Matzkes have no computer. She called companies in Texas, Colorado, all over the United States.

“Few people said no,” she says.

Gun oil is the item Shawn most wants to send his friends.

“There’s so much sand there and it jams weapons,” he says. “That’s what I would want … and toilet paper. It’s a whole different world over there.”

Employees at Starbucks in Coeur d’Alene collected 200 pounds of ground coffee in half-pound bags for Kim to add to gift baskets.

Stephanie Brown, manager of the Starbucks store, was so impressed with Kim’s project that she convinced other stores to donate cocoa, chocolate graham crackers and peppermint cookies. Stephanie discovered that Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights uses each deck of playing cards only once, so she asked for the used cards. The casino offered her two cases and asked if she had a truck to transport them.

“It’s a wonderful thing Kim’s doing,” Stephanie says. “How wonderful to get things from home when you’re far away.”

Kim plans to pack the care packages in Rubbermaid bins so postal workers can check the contents easily by lifting a lid. She’s bought 15 bins and needs 100. She knows the cost of postage will make her gasp. Her family lives on Shawn’s income as a welder. Still, Kim hasn’t asked for postage help. It’s a small price to pay to have Shawn home where she wants him.

“I was dead set against him going. He’s a dad to two babies,” she says. “But he’ll get there eventually. I know he wants to be with those guys.”

The 163rd should know this week where it’s headed, so Kim plans to start mailing bins right after Thanksgiving. She wants more toilet paper, gun oil, laundry soap and goodies to fill the bins. To donate, call Kim at 667-4103.

Singing for dollars

Sweet Adelines spends its money as sweetly as it sings. The women’s a capella chorus in Coeur d’Alene is offering local high school choruses the chance to win scholarships by wowing the audience that shows up for the Sweet Adelines’ annual concert in North Idaho College’s Schuler Auditorium on Sunday.

Choirs from Coeur d’Alene’s Charter Academy, Coeur d’Alene High and Post Falls High will sing between performances by the Sweet Adelines, Tapestry, the Touchstones and Lake City Harmonizers in an American Idol format that will include the audience as well as judges.

Sweet Adelines will award the winning choir $500. Second and third place will each walk away with $250.

“These high school choirs are awesome,” says Sweet Adeline Debbie Drake. “It’s a novel opportunity to hear more than one high school perform at a time.”

Sunday’s show is at 2:30 p.m. Tickets cost $12 for adults and $6 for students. They’re available at Great Harvest Bread Co., 2106 N. Government Way, in Coeur d’Alene or by calling 777-8554.