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| LIFE IN SOLERA | FEBRUARY 2026 | 29 Here we are in our second month of the new year of 2026. It is hard to believe that this program began in late November of 2005. For those who have not heard the story, let me repeat it. My wife and several of her card playing lady friends wanted to send a care package to one of the lady's nephews, who had just gone to Iraq. Back in 2005 we had lots of service personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. When they learned that the 2nd Lieutenant was a platoon leader, they told him to send them a list of everyone and they would send care packages to each of them. I'm not sure that these ladies knew what a platoon was, or how many people were in it. When they learned what they were up against, they went to Solera's Veterans Club, which I was a member of, for assistance. The club donated them $200 toward postage. Before long, members of the club, began bringing over bags of items to be sent, and some donating money. Soon their funds grew to $700 and bags of items took up much of the garage f loor. They would package up six to eight boxes, at a time, and send me to the post office to mail them. Keep in mind, this was happing in between their card playing and all the other games they were involved in. Once they had sent all their packages, they still had money left and lots of bags of items on the garage f loor. I volunteered to close out the project by sending out the rest of the items and using up the funds. Finding the service members was quite a project. I researched every small town newspaper I could find that mentioned a soldier that had just gone overseas. I contacted a Marine Sergeant Major, at Camp Pendleton, and even got names and addresses from moms in grocery and post office lines. I was finally able to close out the project in time to go on my annual fishing trip to Idaho. While I was in Idaho, my wife Linda began sending me the thank you letters she had received from the soldiers. While still in Idaho, I told myself, "I'll just send packages to those who wrote letters." That was 5,740 packages ago. Thank you for caring. ~ Jesse Donardt, 996 Ironwood Road, jdd39@verizon.net, (951) 892-6635 SUPPORT OUR TROOPS VETERAN ASSISTANCE FLAG BRIGADE Billy (Mitch) Mitchell is a resident and Veteran who has voluntarily worked with individuals and the Veterans Administration to assist Veterans in obtaining benefits. If you are a Veteran and want to know which benefits you may be eligible for, contact Mitch at (951) 797-0800. The flags were raised in January for MLK Day and will be raised in February for President's Day. Thank you to those few dedicated resident volunteers who are up "at the crack of dawn" on these special days to put up and take down our flags. Contact for the Flag Brigade is Nick Gercis, nick.gercis@gmail.com. Flag schedule for 2026 President's Day: Mon., Feb. 16 (up 2/16, down 2/18) Viet Nam War Veterans Day: Fri., March 29 (up 3/27, down 3/30) Armed Forces Day: Sat., May 16 (up 5/15, down 5/18) Memorial Day: Mon., May 25 (up 5/23, down 5/26) D Day: Thurs., June 6 (up 6/5, down 6/8) Flag Day: Fri., June 14 (up 6/12, down 6/15) Independence Day: Thurs., July 4 (up 7/3, down 7/6) Labor Day: Mon., Sept. 1 (up 9/4, down 9/8) Patriots Day: Mon., Sept. 11 (up 9/11, down 9/14 National POW/MIA Day: Fri., Sept. 20 (up 9/18, down 9/21) Veterans Day: Sat., Nov. 11 (up 11/10, down 11/13 Pearl Harbor Day: Thurs., Dec. 7 (up 12/4, down 12/8)