Troops to have a treat in memory of Bowmanville soldier

December 18, 2007 - 11:23

By Jennifer Stone

BOWMANVILLE -- When Darlene Cushman's son, Trooper Darryl Caswell, called home from Afghanistan last spring and told her the Crystal Light packages she had sent as part of a care package had gone over big with the troops, the military mom set to work at getting more.

She wrote to the local Independent grocery store near where she lives in Bracebridge, to see if she could get 10 cases of the individual pouches of powder, which adds flavour to bottled water, at wholesale price.

Flavouring water is a treat, said Ms. Cushman. After all, soldiers in Afghanistan must drink a bottle of water -- often warm, since refrigeration isn't always possible -- every 20 minutes.

Soldiers have told her the strawberry-kiwi flavour is most popular, since "it's the one that tastes the best warm."

A few days later, she found out the local grocer had bettered the wholesale price -- she could have the 10 cases and they were a donation from the store.

Thirty minutes later, "four soldiers came to my home to tell me the saddest news I've ever received," said Ms. Cushman, her voice wavering with tears. "I lost Darryl that day."

Trooper Caswell, 25, was killed in the line of duty June 11 in Afghanistan. Just six weeks from returning home from his six-month stint overseas, the Bowmanville High School graduate was killed when the vehicle in which he was driving was struck by an explosive device about 40 kilometres north of Kandahar City.

After the funeral for her son was over, Ms Cushman decided she wasn't going to stop her tradition of sending care packages to the soldiers. In her son's memory, she pledged to get even more Crystal Light over there through a program she calls Darryl's Light.

She got Kraft, the makers of Crystal Light, on side. They offered to match her box-for-box. The military offered to provide transport. And through a number of events, including Bowmanville's Applefest where she had a booth, she got the public to donate 1,000 cases of Crystal Light, enough to change 336,000 bottles of water.

Ms. Cushman took the cases of water apart so people could sponsor individual boxes. On the back of the boxes, each holding eight pouches of Crystal Light, supporters were able to write a message to the solider, leading Ms. Cushman to call them "Sweet Post Cards."

"They would make you laugh, cry, everything," she said.

The cases were loaded onto a transport and "I escorted it down the Highway of Heroes in an OPP car to Trenton," said Ms. Cushman. From there, they went to Afghanistan.

She plans another bid to have boxes of Crystal Light donated in time for her son's birthday next July. She's not currently accepting donations but asks the community to "be ready" for next summer's bid.

For the most part, people were supportive, said Ms. Cushman. She did have a few run-ins -- one man spit in her face "because he thought I was supporting the war." Another was angered because the product she was sending contained aspartame.

Still, "for the lemons out there, there were a lot of lollipops," said Ms. Cushman.

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