by David Lazar
When NH National Guardsman Brian Moore deployed to Iraq in 2003 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, his brother and sister wanted him to know his family supported him. So Nashua’s Paul Moore and Carole Moore-Biggio began cobbling together care packages overflowing with handy-wipes, toiletries and gallon-size bags of goodies.
The packages were a hit, and before long, Moore-Biggio’s young daughters were asking if they could start a school effort to send packages to their uncle’s entire unit. What began as one family’s private cause, operating out of car trunks and minivans, has since become a community-wide call-to-action, with church groups, Girl Scouts, volunteers and corporate sponsors donating and manning assembly lines every two months to ship thousands of packages to soldiers deployed in the War on Terror.
One appreciative soldier wrote the Moores a ‘thank you’ note early on, dubbing their operation ‘Moore-Mart’ for the sheer volume and variety of supplies they were sending over. The name stuck.
Over the last five years, Moore-Mart has sent more than 15,000 care packages to troops overseas – everything from soccer balls to s’mores and school supplies for Afghan children in recovering areas. The Moores have also organized deliveries to homeless and retired vets throughout the state and to injured soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center.
“Anyone who asks us for a package, they get it,” says Moore-Biggio, whose brother Brian is now in his third deployment. “They’re all my brothers – that’s the way I feel. What we are doing is so simple in comparison to what they are doing and to the sacrifice they and their families are making.
Every November, the Moores organize a Christmas stocking drive, asking residents around the state to send or bring in their own stuffed stockings (with everything from packaged candy and cookies to socks and toothpaste). For more information, call (603) 888-9030 or log on to www.mooremart.org. This year’s goal: 4,000 stockings, including one for every New Hampshire soldier deployed overseas.
