COLORADO SPRINGS — More than 425 Fort Carson soldiers joined forces early Friday to stymie a common enemy: Old Man Winter.
Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team Raiders, 4th Infantry Division donned backpacks and Santa hats as they unloaded heaps of donated winter clothing and food during Operation Happy Holiday at the Marian House.
The soldiers marched from Dorchester Park just before 9 a.m., depositing their loads in the parking lot of Marian House, where some of the region’s neediest people were waiting for them.
“People were lining up at 7 a.m.,” said Rochelle B. Schlortt, director of communications for Catholic Charities of Central Colorado. “They were cheering as the soldiers came into the parking lot.”
The clothes and food, gathered from soldiers’ families and friends and the Fort Carson community, made a pile nearly 6 feet high across more than half a dozen tables.
Hundreds of local residents stopped by to pick up jeans, coats and canned goods.
Joe Young, 48, a homeless and unemployed construction worker, came to the lot to pick up some food.
“You gotta work pretty hard to be hungry (in Colorado Springs),” Young said.
But the Marian House turnout was just what he needed.
“The resources are great as far as food,” he said, holding a friend’s bag of donated items.
The winter holidays are the traditional time for giving, but for someone like Young, getting a little help in the winter goes a long way.
For unemployed manual laborers, the winter months are especially tough, Young said.
“In this economy, it’s terrible,” he said. “It really is.
“
