LEWISTON — Robert Smith knows the value of a connection from home, whether it’s a simple deck of cards, a favorite snack or a letter.

“You look at a guy’s face,” said Smith, who spent a year in Iraq with Maine’s 133rd Engineer Battalion. “They light up. Every one.”

So when his employer, Maine Oxy, began collecting items for the soldiers, Smith jumped on the initiative.

“We now collect items for the soldiers at every one of our 13 stores across New England,” Smith, who designed camouflage-colored bins meant to catch the eye, said. “It means so much.” And the business is not alone.

Several area agencies, including the local chapter of the American Red Cross and the statewide Military Family Assistance Center, have been working to help families celebrate the holiday or just get through another week of separation.

The Maine National Guard has about 100 soldiers and airmen deployed to Afghanistan and the Middle East, most from the 101st Air Wing and the 243rd Engineering and Installation Squadron, said Shanon Cotta, spokesman for the Maine Guard. Since 2001, more than 2,600 members of the Maine Guard have deployed.

An unknown number of Mainers, members of the active-duty military, have also served in the region. Some still are.

“We’re trying to reach as many as we can,” said Mark Cater, who works with the Family Assistance Center in Augusta.

This Christmas, the center managed to give presents to dozens of military families. Sponsors, who include local civic groups, business and individuals, choose families to help. They buy clothes, toys, food and other gifts, most of which are already delivered.

Two years ago, the program Christmas Across the State helped 60 families. Last year, the number was 93. This year, it hit 97. With more sponsors, they could have aided even more families.

“There are a lot of families struggling, whether they are deployed or not,” Cater said. “They are so grateful. It brings tears to their eyes for a lot of them. You can see the relief on their faces that their kids are going to have Christmas.”

At least one sponsor came forward and chose to buy presents for a military family instead of his own.

“That’s their Christmas,” Cater said. “They gave up their Christmas to support another family.”

Cater and other workers in his small office adopted a family to help.

“It makes you thankful for what you have,” Cater said.

A similar aim was at work by the local American Red Cross’ United Valley office in Lewiston, which has been part of statewide initiatives that include sending 2,000 hand-signed holiday cards to soldiers and veterans, aid to veterans hospitals such as Togus and specialized emergency communications requests that seek needed links between soldiers and people at home.

In the past week, the United Valley Red Cross told a deployed Oxford County dad of his daughter’s birth, passed on news to an Androscoggin County man of his mother’s death and rushed a Franklin County soldier home to be with his sick wife, said Eric Lynes, emergency services director for the Red Cross in Lewiston.

The office has received 108 emergency communication requests in the past year, he said.

The distance between Lewiston and a far-off place such as Kandahar, Afghanistan — about 6,500 miles — shouldn’t cripple a family.

“It’s basically to keep families connected when they need it the most,” Lynes said.

[email protected]