POULSBO — With more than 2,500 servicemen and women making the ultimate sacrifice in the sands of Iraq and mountains of Afghanistan, the tragedy of war has yet to land in Little Norway.

But that hasn’t kept two local residents from doing their part to send those warriors overseas a touch of home.

Colleen Williams and Maxine Sanders, who live in the Hostmark Apartments, have already sent five care packages overseas and hope to send two more before the end of the month.

“I felt called by God to do something to help the boys and I never dreamed it would reach this point,” Williams said.

With that burden on her heart, Williams said she contacted representatives from all of the service branches to find out how she could get something to those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I finally went down the numbers of the Veterans Administration and found one guy, who gave me the name of Nadine Clark,” she said.

Clark, who lives in Issaquah, gave her the first five names of service personnel she could send care packages to, Williams said.

“We’ve gone on from that time, and we still have six names,” she said, adding that the first package went to a soldier serving in Afghanistan. Some service members receive a lot of mail from friends and family during their time overseas, but many don’t, she said.

“I’m hoping that the boys will send us names of some that really need it,” she said. “Some of the boys don’t receive much mail, so that’s who we’re sending them to.”

Those names have come from friends of friends and others the pair has been able to contact, since there is no public list of service members serving overseas, Williams said.

Sanders said she became involved when Williams mentioned what she was doing and decided to help.

“Right now, people seem to have forgotten about the boys and you don’t see the yellow ribbons like you did during the first Gulf war,” she said.

The majority of the news coverage members of the Armed Forces see and read is negative and they need to know the people at home support them, Sanders said.

From the beginning, Williams said she and Sanders have worked to include the things that those serving really want and they’ve found that some things ship better than others.

“We can send nuts in a can, but any nuts in cookies get stale,” she said.

Items such as toothpaste, deodorant, hand cream, potato chips, T-shirts, socks and underwear are frequently requested as well as hard candy and homemade goodies, she said.

Because of the process involved in sending the packages overseas, Williams said it is difficult to gauge how long it will be before a package finally arrives to as service member.

“Right now it goes out of Washington to a military post office, which sends it overseas and from there it makes its way to the soldier,” she said.

Even though it is just the two of them putting together the boxes, Williams and Sanders said they are always looking for donations of items and money to help with postage.

Information on how and what to donate can be obtained by calling Williams at (360) 697-6613 or Sanders at (360) 779-4168. Donations can also be dropped off at the Hostmark Apartment offices at 703 Hostmark St.

Even though Williams and Sanders are leading the effort, both shy away from the spotlight that their efforts might merit.

“It’s not about us at all,” Williams said. “It’s all about the boys and that’s how it should be.”