By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer
A Lewiston woman is gathering items for her son-in-law

LEWISTON – Wrapped in white and decorated with a yellow ribbon, Nancy St. Pierre’s donation box for troops in Iraq sits almost empty.

After a week in her busy downtown shop, Victor News, the trash-can-sized box seems barren, but for an old copy of Scientific American resting on the bottom.

She has faith, though. A team of two dozen soldiers deserves the help.

Her collection is meant for members of the Army’s 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, a platoon of soldiers who drive into some of the most dangerous places in Iraq. When other soldiers fear chemical weapons may be used against them, the team is sent in to sniff it out.

They were once led by Capt. Steven Caron of Sabattus, St. Pierre’s son-in-law.

The soldiers were a kind of family for the Maine man who married her daughter, Katie. Caron commanded the platoon for a year, until the team’s deployment to Iraq this summer.

Then, the Army bureaucracy kicked in. He was moved to a desk job, working in a palace where one of Saddam Hussein’s sons once lived.

“We was very upset to have to leave them,” Katie Caron said. She met them a few times, guys who were relaxed and funny together.

When word reached Nancy, she told her friends. They hatched a plan.

“It wasn’t even my idea,” said Nancy, who has worked with her friends for years to help area families during the holidays.

Someone asked if the platoon would qualify as a family. St. Pierre said yes.

They decorated the box and placed it near the entrance of the store.

“People don’t know about it yet,” St. Pierre said.

They hope to gather a wide variety of items for the troops overseas: paperback books; magazines about sports, cars, hunting and science; unused puzzle books; and a variety of little items, from candy, chocolates and chewing gum to beef jerky and lip balm.

They hope to gather everything by Nov. 1, in time to send packages to Iraq for Thanksgiving.

Items will go to soldiers in the platoon and to Caron’s current co-workers.

By sending them to his old command, Caron might ease his mind a little.

“He’s not leaving them,” said his wife, pregnant with their first child.

He’ll be in Iraq through the holidays, perhaps not returning home until April, when Katie is due.