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Front Porch

Troops near to military wife's heart

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published December 15, 2006

Latanya Henry recalls Mother Teresa's words when she talks to her daughter about giving back.

"I tell her, 'We can't all do great things in this world, but we can do small things with great joy,' " Latanya said.

But if you visited her Apollo Beach house this holiday season, you might think she was courting greatness.

Pressed for space, she's assigned her dining room a new purpose: It now houses six blue storage tubs and two children's wagons heaped with toiletries, Christmas cookies, hot chocolate mix, beef jerky, soup, coffee, tea, canned tuna, peanuts, magazines and Beanie Babies.

The 39-year-old Latanya, along with a devoted brigade of neighborhood volunteers, is boxing up supplies to mail to U.S. military men and women in Iraq.

She tells friends and neighbors in her MiraBay community that taking a few boxes to the post office and paying for postage is one of those small acts of love she holds so close to her heart.

It all started a year and a half ago when her husband, Linwood Henry, a lieutenant colonel and radiologist in the Air Force, was deployed to Iraq.

Around that time, a manager at MiraBay happened to ask Latanya if she'd like to head up a social committee to get more people to use the clubhouse.

"I told her that I thought there were enough parties out there and that we ought to be sending care packages to our soldiers and making quilts for the wounded," she recalled.

So Latanya, along with two friends, started a neighborhood group and christened it the MiraBay Fun Bunch.

It's a good time, sure, but with a civic punch.

At the first event on Labor Day 2005, they enlisted neighborhood children to walk from house to house and collect nonperishable items for overseas care packages.

The response was big-hearted and loud: They filled two pickup trucks with donations. One family gave an entire pallet of sunscreen - an overlooked necessity in the Iraqi desert.

Next, Latanya taught 16 women to make red, white and blue quilt tops, each featuring a handwritten thank-you letter in the center. During that first learning session, the group made 20 quilts, which were donated to the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa. Then, during a three-day quilting marathon last month, they made 52 more.

She wants wounded soldiers to know that they aren't forgotten.

Latanya, a passionate quilter who has a studio in her home, finished many of the quilts herself. She also gets help from employees at the Bernina Pfaff Sewing Center on Lumsden Road in Brandon.

The Sewing Center also sells the quilt patterns and kits for $25. If you don't sew, they can make it for you, Latanya said.

Latanya knows that if everyone would do just a little bit when they can - pack or mail a care package, or donate lunch to the volunteers - the world would be a better place.

What makes Latanya do so much?

"I was most influenced by my grandmother," she said.

"She was an extraordinary woman, a librarian who always read to me, and instilled in me my love of books.

"She used to say, 'To whom much is given, much is expected.' I live in a beautiful home and community, have a loving husband, friends and family. I want to share my blessings, not just count them."

Latanya Henry can be reached at (813) 244-1637.

[Last modified December 14, 2006, 08:56:35]