By Denise Gebers • Progress Staff Writer

Nearly 60 rugs, carpet samples and cut carpet pieces were prepared last week for shipment to military personnel stationed in Afghanistan this winter by employees of the Paulding County Treasurer’s office.

Treasurer Lou Ann Wannemacher and her clerks Sharon Hicov and Karen Leatherman got the idea while talking to Angie Johnson whose son, Jeremy, is stationed there with the U.S. Marines at Camp Leatherneck. Each time one of the soldiers gets out of his bunk and puts his bare feet down on the floor, the floor is either cold concrete or the sand.

Flyers announcing the project were posted around the courthouse and sent to county employees with their checks. Rugs were collected in a box on the main floor of the courthouse Nov. 19-30. Donations of carpet samples and end rolls came from county businessmen Perry Sinn and Ray Friend. Money to mail the rugs, totaling $60, was collected during the courthouse Thanksgiving meal on Nov. 21.

Looking over the donated items on Friday morning, Angie said, “This is amazing. I cannot get over the response.” She relayed to the ladies in the treasurer’s office that her son knows the rugs are coming and that he says “Thank you, the guys will really appreciate them! Tell everyone thank you.”

Here, Sharon Hicov surveyed the donations that had been boxed and those yet to be processed. Two of the boxes were mailed Dec. 4 with a third going out later in the week.