“Thank you for your support” is scribbled on a shirt from the Spokane Fire Department.

“Hang in there, stay strong and be safe,” wrote a person on a shirt from Millerton, N.Y.

“Thank you for serving the best country ever!” says the writing on a shirt from San Antonio.

These shirts – and about 25,000 others – will soon head to U.S. and Canadian troops overseas as part of the Hero To Hero program, which had a PackOut event Saturday at Camp Murray.

Service members and civilians sat at long white tables and signed messages on T-shirts donated from fire and police departments around the world. The hope is that the shirts will provide a morale boost to troops overseas.

“There’s nothing like giving the shirt off your back for someone,” said Liz Jackson, who founded the program five years ago at her Lakewood home. “This allows heroes at home and heroes serving overseas to honor each other.”

This was the fifth and final PackOut event at Camp Murray. Jackson shipped 800 shirts in 2003, the program’s first year. In the run-up to Saturday’s event, her house was swamped with piles of shirts, donated bags of coffee and other supplies.

In place of the big PackOuts, organizers will instead focus on “playing matchmaker” by helping units deployed overseas link up directly with fire and police departments back home.

Capt. Tom Heilman is a big fan of the program. He was serving with the Fort Lewis-based 63rd Ordnance Company, 80th Ordnance Battalion in spring 2007 when a shipment arrived from Hero To Hero.

His wife had noticed the group’s Web site and helped hook them up.

“We wore them a couple of times in the desert, like when we had sporting events or had relaxation days,” said Heilman, who received a shirt from the Bellevue Fire Department. “It was a huge morale boost.”

Most of the 400 participants at Saturday’s event were service members stationed at Fort Lewis or McChord Air Force Base, but large numbers of police officers, firefighters and other residents also kept busy signing shirts.

“I’m down here because I love to support and love to serve,” said Thomas Tolliver, a 22-year-old firefighting student at Bates Technical College. “I’ll sign as many shirts as I can.”

A festive atmosphere permeated the PackOut. A color guard featuring members of local police and fire departments and a representative from each branch of the military presented the flags. Bagpipers from the Tacoma Fire Department played. Raffle winners took home prizes, and a few people caught shirts shot from an air cannon. Law enforcement and fire departments showed off their rigs.

A pile of shirts 5 feet high and about 13 feet long sat in one corner of the room waiting to be signed. In another corner, volunteers folded and boxed each item.

The shirts came from as far as the U.S. Virgin Islands, England and Ireland, Jackson said. Kevin McHarg, a firefighter from Sarnia, Ontario, said the group has sent shirts to Canadian troops stationed in Haiti, Israel and Afghanistan.

“More people are learning about this and want to help,” he said. “Soon, we might even have more T-shirts than troops to send them to.”

Scott Fontaine: 253-320-4758

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