Georgia AFA Delivers Heartfelt Care Packages to Deployed Airmen

The East Georgia AFA Chapter—with support from CMSAF #19 JoAnne Bass, South Georgia AFA, and the Georgia State AFA—sent handmade cards and care packages to deployed Airmen of the 23rd Maintenance Group at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. Intentionally included in the boxes were special items for the unit’s senior NCOs; CMSAF Bass wrote handwritten notes and supplied challenge coins to honor their service. The initiative also reintroduced local students and cadets to the Air Force, teaching what it means to serve one’s country, what deployment is and what aircraft operate at Moody AFB.

In December 2025, Chief Master Sgt. Jacoby Madden asked AFA East Georgia Chapter President Laurie Orth to assemble care packages for his deployed members of the 23rd Maintenance Group at Moody AFB. Madden asked the chapter to build on last year’s effort and scale it up to serve twice as many Airmen. Madden is also the AFA South Georgia Chapter President, and as a Chief Master Sergeant in the unit, he knows the impact these care packages had last year. He asked Orth to mobilize her aerospace education network to make it happen again.

Orth tapped longtime partner, the Statesboro Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol (GA451), whose leadership team prepared stories for cadets about deployment, service, and supporting troops before they wrote their cards. Three CyberPatriot teams at Challenge Preparatory Academy in Augusta created handmade cards, and Navy JROTC cadets from Sprayberry High School’s Yellow Jacket Battalion in Marietta, introduced through Georgia’s 2024 Teacher of the Year, contributed handwritten letters.

Along with Chief Bass (an Armed Forces Director on AFA’s board), AFA field leaders also joined in, sending personal notes to include in the boxes: Vice Chairman for Field Operations Chris Canada, Georgia State President Jackie Trotter, Secretary of the Steele Chapter Bob Hill, and immediate past AFA Treasurer Chuck Martin.

Shipments of handwritten cards from across Georgia and the country arrived over several weeks, and in early February Orth finalized the packages. The boxes reached the deployed Airmen a few days after Valentine’s Day. Madden reported the Airmen “loved” them and reported that last year many service members displayed their cards throughout their deployment, a testament to the morale boost these care packages provided.  

Some of the handwritten cards read: “Dear Airman, I thank you dearly for being of service to our country and I hope you will find comfort being without your family.  I hope God will be with you while you are on your deployment”; “I wish you a safe return, really, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for your service. You are a hero”; “We love you guys so much! Stay safe and make good choices. Thank you for your service to our country.”  

“Remembering that our service members are on the front lines, serving while we live our lives, is important,” Orth said. “From everyone at AFA: Thank you to our Active-duty Airmen and Guardians, Reservists, and Air National Guardsmen. We salute you—godspeed.”