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Exactly 101 care packages have traveled from the Mount Airy Senior Center to various locations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The senior citizens who assemble them say they are giving smiles and countless calories — and even saving a few lives.

"One thing I'll always remember is when we send toys," said Helen Malinak, who heads the care package project with her husband, Walter Malinak. Soldiers often share the bounty from their boxes; one time in particular they distributed some toy trucks to local children.

"The little boy came back to the soldier and told him where a bomb was; a mine was in the road," Helen Malinak said. "So that really saved their day."

The effort usually is not about life or death but instead about bringing the comfort of home to soldiers serving overseas. That desire compels the Frederick residents to recruit names, collect items and pack the boxes sent to friends and family of Mount Airy residents.

Helen Malinak said they never lack names to send to, getting ideas from the 55 Plus Club and the senior center's site council.

"We always get someone; in fact I've got a whole slew right now," she said, referring to the 10 names currently on her list.

Different senior citizens contribute to the monthly boxes, giving items and money. Even a former recipient has donated to the cause.

"This is all done by volunteers, the whole thing," Helen Malinak said.

The couple is involved in the senior center more ways than one — Helen Malinak is the editor of the center's newsletter and Walter Malinak helps with the graphics. The two also man the desk at the center on Wednesday afternoons. Although they live in Frederick now, they say Mount Airy is home, and wished they could have found a local condo.

The care packages — discarded computer paper boxes weighing about 30 pounds — are jammed with food including Goldfish crackers and Lifesavers Gummies, personal items such as tampons and toothpaste and entertainment items including playing cards, local newspapers, toys and knitted caps.

"This one man always gives a camera and peanut butter and jelly in every package," said Helen Malinak standing over the packed box last Wednesday. "One lady has been doing homemade cookies for seven years ... never fails to fill it with cookies."

Walter Malinak fills the cracks with candy to reduce rattling, tapes up the packages and ships them off for about $20.

Depending on supplies and the amount on the list, they send two at a time, like this past November, June and April, all methodically recorded on Helen Malinak's list.

Walter Malinak, a World War II veteran, said they didn't receive packages like the ones now because those generations didn't have anything to give at the time.

The Malinaks started sending the care packages in 2004, when their niece, Julia Donley, was stationed in Iraq and asked that they adopt her platoon. Donley, now a major with the Army Signal Corps, stationed in Georgia, said the package came at a time when not a lot of infrastructure was in place, and items from home were incredibly useful for everyone.

"Sometimes you kind of want things from home that make the situation you're in a little bit more comfortable," she said. "Sometimes it's just nice to have a name brand."

All the care packages were compiled and people would take what they needed from it.

Since then, the Malinaks have continued to send packages to Iraq and Afghanistan. "We always send to it a serviceman," Helen Malinak said. "And we ask them to share it with the rest in their unit."

But it doesn't always make it to that serviceman if they're not at the same address when the package arrives. The Malinaks learned their lesson, saying after a few returned packages they now specify on the package that if the person is no longer at the location, the package can go to anyone.

In the Mount Airy Senior Center lobby hangs a triangle case of an American flag, along with a certificate stating its former residence at a base in Iraq. The flag was given to the senior center in recognition of their constant contributions. Near it is a framed letter in neat handwriting on lined paper. "Receiving your packages was not only a surprise, but a great morale booster for all the ‘fire dawgs,'" said Randy Eppley of the U.S. Air Force in the March 2006 letter. He added that receiving packages like this show the support of all the people back home.

On Wednesday, the center packed the 101st box, and the Malinaks say many more are to come.

"The biggest part is letting them know we support them," Helen Malinak said of the troops. "A lot of people are mixed up about this war and we just want them to know we support them through hell and high water."

To donate items or help assemble care packages, call Walter or Helen Malinak at 301-662-7296.