The Villages Daily Sun

THE VILLAGES — A recent weekend getaway to the Florida Panhandle by one Villages couple resulted in a windfall for Operation Shoebox of The Villages.

Lynda Riker was paying for a purchase at an antiques and collectibles shop in Fernandina Beach when she mentioned that she was buying a metal star as a template to make stationery for notes to servicemen and women overseas and in military hospitals.

“We’re always trying to come up with different ideas for stationery,” Riker told the clerk.

As she described the Operation Shoebox program, the owner of Island Treasures, Emma Leeper, became interested in the conversation.

Leeper has a sister who is a career Marine.

“She said, ‘We can’t do enough for our troops,’” Riker said, recalling the impromptu conversation.

Riker continued telling the women about Operation Shoebox, for which she and her husband, Bob, are enthusiastic volunteers.

She mentioned “small toys” that the troops give to the Iraqi children.

“Some people even donate Beanie Babies,” Riker said.

Leeper told them she had a Beanie Baby collection that she had been wanting to put to good use, and asked if they were interested in having it for Operation Shoebox.

Lynda Riker assured Leeper they would, and offered to pay the postage if Leeper wanted to mail her the stuffed animals.

Leeper said there were too many to mail — hundreds, in fact.

Riker offered to return to Fernandina Beach to pick them up.

Although the Rikers had been told the Beanie Babies numbered in the hundreds, they didn’t anticipate driving home with almost 1,000 of the small stuffed animals — enough to fill plastic storage containers that cover their dining room table and flow over into an antique doll stroller and other containers at hand.

The Beanie Babies will be included in Christmas stockings and used as filler in holiday boxes of goody bags sent to active duty personnel serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Rikers will act as foster parents for the stuffed animals until November.

Iraqi and Afghan children often flock to the uniformed Americans in hopes of receiving little gifts, and the military personnel give the children small toys or candy to win the goodwill of the younger generation. Many of the children have never owned a toy.

“They have so little,” Riker said.

The majority of Leeper’s collection was at her home. The rest of the Beanies were on display at a shop, Cornucopia, in Fernandina’s historic district.

“Do you think the kids would like these, too?” the clerk at Cornucopia asked, showing the Rikers a variety of small toys, including a box chock full of Beanie Baby trading cards that break down into puzzles.

The store also donated boxes of greeting cards and stationery that will be used to write personal notes to wounded servicemen as part of Wounded Warriors.

“Sharing stories makes people aware of what they can give,” Riker said, noting that Operation Shoebox will be sending out up to 18,000 cards this year.

Bob Riker said he believes people still care about the troops, but as the war has gone on so long, they tend to forget to remember them.

“People have become complacent,” Bob Riker said.

During World War II, he said, Americans had ration coupons to remind them that the country was at war, but most Americans aren’t personally affected by the war in Iraq.

“We have troops serving every day. We need to be reminded every day,” Lynda Riker said.

“I just am thrilled that (the collection) went to a good place,” Leeper said. “It’s a wonderful thing they’re doing for our country.”

Sharing the story of the Beanie Babies from Fernandina Beach has already resulted in more donations of Beanie Babies.

Bob Riker’s sister, Carolyn Anne Donaldson, is mailing the Rikers her collection of 25 or 30 Beanie Babies from Lexington, Ill.

Mary Lou McDaniel, who Lynda Riker met while having her hair cut in a Belleview beauty salon, also has offered to bring Riker her Beanie Babies collection. McDaniel heard Riker talking about the Beanie Baby donation when she brought the woman for whom she provides daily care to the shop.

“You only have to make one comment,” Riker said.

“We do not know why we stopped at this particular store, or why a lady is willing to donate $7,000 worth of Beanie Babies,” Bob Riker said.

The Rikers believe a higher power played a role in their being at the right place at the right time, and saying the right things.

“I think God puts us in areas for a reason,” Lynda Riker said.

Glenda Sanders is a features writer with the Daily Sun. She can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9245, or glenda.sanders@thevillagesmedia.com.