Soldiers who will be unable to be with their families during the holidays this year are getting an assist from members of Western Kentucky University’s ROTC Hilltopper Battalion.

Western’s ROTC unit has developed Electronic Entertainment for Soldiers, a program to collect used DVDs, CDs, video games and magazines and send them to soldiers deployed in combat throughout the world.

“A lot of time soldiers will get care packages with food and other essential items, but what they don’t get a lot of are things to entertain them and take their mind off of combat,” said ROTC Cadet Lt. John Morris, a senior at WKU.

The Hilltopper Battalion began putting together a package last week of their own DVDs and electronics to send, and beginning today the campaign will branch out campus-wide.

Cadets will go through dorms this week to ask residents to donate whatever they can, and drop-off points for Electronic Entertainment for Soldiers are being set up outside WKU’s ROTC office at Edgar Diddle Arena and elsewhere.

Morris said the program is a philanthropic effort by the battalion to keep the concerns of soldiers serving throughout the world in the minds of people here in the United States.

“Soldiers in Iraq and other places are in combat 24/7, and even when they’re off the line, they’re dealing with stress,” Morris said. “Those guys who won’t be home for the holidays are the guys who are feeling the impact the most.”

Morris has already set aside several DVDs from his own collection to donate, and he suggests sending comedies.

Sgt. Daniel Cromer, a military science instructor at WKU who was stationed in Iraq for a year, said that movies and TV are a luxury for soldiers in Iraq, and that any sort of gift from home would be appreciated.

“Anything that can remind you of the real world is appreciated,” said Cromer, whose infantry unit in Iraq built a collection of more than 360 movies donated from the U.S.

Donations of any sort, even old magazines, would be appreciated, Cromer said.

“It doesn’t need to be Playstation games,” Cromer said.

Warren Central High School’s Army JROTC Dragon battalion is on board with the Electronic Entertainment for Soldiers program, with collection boxes set up at each focus group, which serves the purpose of a homeroom for WCHS students.

JROTC Cadet Colby Glasscock, a junior at WCHS, said each focus group is keeping track of donated items, assigning different point values to DVDs, CDs, video games and magazines.

The focus group with the most points at the end of this week will win a free pizza party.

“I would hate to be over there during the holidays,” said Glasscock, who plans to join the Army National Guard when he graduates. “I would be glad to do anything for (the soldiers) and I’m glad for what they do. Hopefully, we’ll get a lot of participation.”

— Items may be dropped off at E.A. Diddle Arena. For more information, call Morris at (502) 387-1119.