by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
A gift from the Jacksonville Bar Association will help National Guard Troops keep in touch with families after deploying to Iraq in October.
Co-Chairs Stella Lane and Ruth Thompson represented the Association’s Military Law Section Thursday while presenting Lt. Col. Matt Johnson of the National Guard’s 146th Signal Battalion with 76,600 minutes (about 1,277 hours) for the troops in his unit and at Kosovo Forces Headquarters.
“This was a total surprise,” said Johnson. “I found out about the donation about three weeks ago. It really means a lot to soldiers and their families to keep in touch when they are deployed.”
The idea for the card drive was sparked when the Bar Association hosted a speaker from the Pentagon who was deployed to Kosovo.
“Ruth (Thompson) approached her and asked how we could help troops being deployed,” said Lane, a Judge Advocate General reservist. “She was deployed to Kosovo, so we decided we wanted to help her unit and a local unit.”
The Association chose Jacksonville’s 146th Signal Battalion as its local benefactor of the card drive. The phone cards were chosen because they are easy to ship and are always in demand, Lane added.
The phone card drive took place from May 27-June 9. Gift bags were dropped off at law offices across Jacksonville to collect the cards.
The following law firms contributed to the card drive: Bedell, Dittmar, DeVault, Pillans & Coxe; Boyd & Jenerette; Caplan Law Firm; Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Daniel; Cole, Stone, Stoudemire & Morgan; Farah & Farah; Foley & Lardner; Ford, Bowlus, Duss, Morgan, Kenney, Safer & Hampton; Gobelman, Love, Gavin, Wasilenko & Broughan; GrayRobinson; Harrell & Harrell; Hinshaw & Culbertson; Jacksonville Area Legal Aid; Marks Gray; McGuireWoods; Moseley, Prichard, Parrish, Knight & Jones; Pajcic & Pajcic; Rogers Towers; Rolfe & Lobello; Spohrer & Dodd; Stutsman, Thames & Markey; Tanner Bishop; Taylor, Day, Currie, Boyd & Johnson; Terrell Hogan; The Office of the Public Defender; and Volpe, Bajalia, Wickes, Rogerson & Wachs.