Hundreds of volunteers bustled around the warehouse behind the Toms River Armory on Saturday afternoon, packing enough boxes with snack food, toiletries and calling cards for more than 1,000 soldiers in Iraq.

It was a busy and successful day for Ronnie Micciulla and her nonprofit group, American Recreational Military Services, which organized the event. But even though it's the largest group of its kind in the state, Micciulla said, ARMS has been struggling to find support lately.

"This has been the worst year, financially and for supplies," she said.

The drop in donations comes at the same time nearly 3,000 New Jersey National Guard members - who deployed for training in Texas in June - left for service in Iraq, the largest deployment of the guard since World War II.

Micciulla estimated donations have dropped off by half this year, compared with steady support over the past several years at war. She attributed this partially to a slumping economy.

"You can't ask someone to put food on someone else's table if you can't put it on your own," she said.

But Micciulla, along with many of the veterans and spouses of soldiers who are ARMS volunteers, said the major reason for the decline is simply a lack of awareness: Five and a half years after the war began, and in the midst of a financial crisis and a presidential election, Iraq has faded from the news and the consciousness of many Americans.

Several recent polls indicate the war is no longer Americans' top concern. A CBS News/New York Times poll in September found the Iraq War was the fourth most important concern for voters, tied with health care, and ranking below the economy, energy policy and national security.

At the same time, ARMS donation drives have garnered much less support than in years past.

For example, every year the group runs a donation drive with the Food Circus chain of supermarkets in the area, where the group stations volunteers and donation boxes. Micciulla said they typically collect about 150 boxes to send overseas from these drives - but this year they filled fewer than 60.

Financial donations have lagged as well, which also hurts groups like ARMS because of the shipping costs to send care packages to Iraq. The boxes volunteers packed Saturday cost $12 to $16 each to ship.

Earlier this summer, ARMS packed 200 boxes of supplies to send overseas, but the boxes sat in a warehouse for months because the group didn't have the couple of thousand dollars to ship them.

All of this means soldiers will get fewer of the packages they have come to rely on, said Gilroy Park, a Gulf War and Iraq War National Guard veteran who most recently returned from Iraq in 2006. He said soldiers prize the simple items sent in care packages, such as toilet paper, deodorant and junk food - all of which soldiers either don't have access to in Iraq or have to pay for on their bases.

"But most guys don't carry cash or credit cards on them," he said, "and guys also try to send their money home to support their families."

In August, the soldiers had a four-day leave from training at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, but they were not permitted to travel home - leaving many families having to either pay for flights to Texas or go without seeing their loved ones before they leave for 10 months.

"I've heard a lot of people couldn't get the money together to go," said Cheryl Betten, who spent $2,000 to fly to spend three days with her husband, Shawn, before he left. She was unable to pay for their four children to go.

According to Chief Warrant Officer Patrick Daugherty, public affairs officer for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, morale was high in the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team when it left. Many of the brigade's members are serving their second or third tour in Iraq.

But Micciulla and many other ARMS volunteers aren't so sure, and hope they can raise enough support in the coming holiday season to maintain their Project Little Soldier campaign, which provides holiday gifts to the children of deployed soldiers.

"People will say, 'Oh, I gave once before,' but they don't realize this is an ongoing thing," said Toni Seinfeld, an ARMS volunteer.

ARMS is planning a fundraiser and donation drive at the Trump Marina Hotel Casino after raising $4,000 at the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino last Christmas, which helped them pack and ship supplies like those now in the warehouse behind the armory in Toms River. The group also plans drives in the Stafford and Lacey Township school districts and is always looking to organize more.

The most help the group could use now, however, is simply reminding people that the soldiers are still fighting and still need help.

"It's starting to be a forgotten war," Park said. "No one wants to remember this war is still going on."

E-mail Lee Procida:

LProcida@pressofac.com

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