WEST PARIS – The Troopettes will hold a wrapping party this evening to send Christmas gifts to six West Paris servicemen stationed in Iraq.

Everyone is welcome to join them at 6 p.m. at the town office.

Troopette Sylvia McCann said Wednesday that packages can take up to five weeks to arrive, so they’re being sent well in advance of the holidays. The mailing will be another undertaken by the Troopettes since the 133rd Engineer Battalion was deployed last spring, she said.

“We started sending packages in March, and we have sent one every month since,” McCann said. Food will be the primary enclosure this time, she said with a laugh. “They love American food – not military food.”

The soldiers from West Paris are U.S. Army Sgt. Buddy Robinson; Spc. Travis Coffman of the 133rd Engineer Battalion’s Company D; and Spc. Jonathan Stevens, Spc. Vernon Inman, Sgt. Shawn Coffin and Sgt. Randy Jones, all serving with Company C of the 133rd Engineer Battalion.

McCann said the Troopettes include family members of the West Paris servicemen stationed abroad, as well as supporters with no direct family ties. She is one of the latter.

“I’m just one of the people who feel very, very fortunate that my son grew up without having to go to war,” she said.

The Troopettes have held everything from bingo nights to raffles to raise money for the monthly mailings to the 133rd.

“The monthly mailings (usually cost) about $150, and postage is usually about $60,” McCann said. To date, the Troopettes have raised more than $2,000 toward their efforts, she said.

Sgt. 1st Class Barbara Claudel, director of the 133rd’s family support program, said the Troopettes are like many groups across the state that have gathered in support of the service men and women overseas.

“People have really come out of the woodwork to help the soldiers and their families back home,” she said.

The response was similar when Maine guardsmen were sent to fight in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Claudel said, but the difference now is how the Iraq war has touched the state’s guardsmen.

“Every unit in the state has had people deployed,” she said.

What the service men and women abroad really want is to come home and be with their loved ones, she said, but care packages containing items like letters, international phone cards, DVDs and junk food provide some comfort.