OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Seven Navy crew members were killed last month, when the destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a large container ship off the coast of Japan.
Now the ship and crew have been dry docked and Wednesday a group from U-W-Oshkosh sent boxes of donations to those sailors.
The hope is that simple items from books to snacks will help crew members through this tragedy.
“This is amazing! This says a lot about who our students are.”
Timber Smith is the school’s veterans resource coordinator and spoke to WLUK.
The donations were gathered by the junior class in the social work department. They did so for veterans in need with guidance from the Student Veterans Association.
“And presented the idea and, of course, we loved it. Then they went to work.” explained Smith.
“The only thing we ever really struggled with was who to send it to.” added Aaron Kloss the president of the Student Veterans Association on campus.
Then, Koss says the USS Fitzgerald collided with the container ship.
“And we had two rooms of donations and we said, ‘you know what? This is a perfect opportunity.”
“They’re going through a transition and if we can be of a little bit of help, it means the world.” added Smith.
Two cars took the donations down to Milwaukee where Koss says the donations will be shipped out to the crew of the USS Fitzgerald.
“From personal hygiene items to snacks, to clothing, these are all things they need to replace what was lost.”
The mother of an officer on-board the Fitzgerald coordinated shipping the donations to the crew.
