The Stories Behind the 2026 We Are Carroll Awards
Rooted in the Community: America’s Warriors Care Package Projects
By Jaclyn Mathias, Community Foundation of Carroll County Executive Director
I was there the night Dawn Geigan was recognized by Carroll County Veterans Independence Project. I remember pulling out my phone and recording her as she spoke. At the time, I knew what she was saying mattered. But recently, as I have been working on this story and trying to figure out exactly what I wanted people to understand about Dawn, I went back and watched those videos again. This time, I heard the piece I had been missing.
About a year and a half before joining the Community Foundation of Carroll County in 2018, Dawn talked about seeing the conditions our military members were living in while deployed overseas and remembering the question that went through her mind: “Is that the best we can do for our military?” We send men and women thousands of miles away from their homes and families to serve our country. We ask an extraordinary amount of them. Dawn looked at those conditions and couldn’t accept that what she was seeing was the best we could do in return.
So she did what Dawn does. She did something. She started with a few boxes.
There wasn’t some grand plan to build an organization or create a movement. There was a need in front of her, and Dawn decided to do what she could. More than nine years later (the last eight+ years with the CFCC), those few boxes have become countless care packages sent to military members serving around the world. But the more I think about Dawn’s story, the more I realize that counting the boxes doesn’t really tell it. It’s about what it takes to get every one of those boxes into the hands of someone serving thousands of miles from home — and the community Dawn built to make that possible.
It takes a village. Spend any time looking through the pictures from America’s Warriors Care Package Projects and you can see that village everywhere. You see volunteers packing boxes, businesses and organizations collecting supplies, police departments helping, veterans and military families working alongside community members, people purchasing items from wish lists, people donating money, and people simply showing up when Dawn says there is another unit that needs something.
And the need is always changing. Sometimes it is the simple comforts of home that mean so much when home is very far away. Other times, the requests are incredibly specific because of where a unit is deployed or the conditions they are facing. Dawn listens to what they actually need and then starts putting the pieces together. What do we need? Where can we get it? Who can help? And how are we going to get it there?
That last question is a much bigger part of this story than most people probably realize. Getting all of the supplies is one thing. Packing the boxes is another. But then you have to actually mail them. A recent shipment of 96 boxes headed to deployed troops cost $2,458.30 in postage. Over their eight years with the Community Foundation, all of those shipments have represented nearly a quarter of a million dollars in postage alone.
Think about what that really means. Every item has to come from somewhere. Every request has to be answered. Supplies have to be collected, donations have to be made, volunteers have to pack everything, and after the last box is taped shut, Dawn and her team still have to find the money to move it from Carroll County to wherever in the world someone is waiting for it.
Because a care package sitting in Carroll County isn’t the point. The point is getting it into the hands of the person thousands of miles away who needs to know they haven’t been forgotten.
And somehow, for more than nine years, Dawn keeps finding a way to do exactly that. There is something about the way she leads that I have always admired. Dawn talks about we. She talks about her team, the volunteers, the donors, the businesses and the organizations that make this work possible. Even when Dawn is the person standing in front of a room being recognized, her instinct is to talk about everyone who helped make the work happen.
I have experienced that through her relationship with the Community Foundation, too. Dawn doesn’t come to us and make us feel like we are an organization standing on the outside helping her organization. She pulls us in. It becomes, we need to get these packages out. And suddenly, we are part of the team too.
For a long time, I thought that was simply Dawn’s way of sharing the credit, and I do think that is part of it. But as I have spent more time thinking about her story, I have realized there is something much deeper happening. Dawn has given people in this community a place to put their own emotions and their own reasons for caring.
People come to this work for all kinds of reasons. Some have served themselves. Some love someone who has. Some know exactly what it feels like to have someone they love deployed thousands of miles away. Some carry gratitude. Some carry worry. Some carry grief. Some feel a responsibility to support the people serving our country. And some simply see a need and think, I can help with that.
Dawn has never needed everyone’s why to be the same. She doesn’t ask why you came before she makes room for you when you get there. Your reason for standing at that packing table may be completely different from Dawn’s and completely different from the person standing beside you. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that once you are there, everyone is working toward the same thing: getting those boxes into the hands of the men and women serving our country.
That may be one of the most remarkable things Dawn has built without ever setting out to build it. She has created a place where all of those different reasons for caring can become something useful. Worry can pack a box. Gratitude can help pay the postage. Grief can collect supplies. Love can show up and work beside someone whose reason for being there is completely different.
Dawn doesn’t need to know what brought you there. She just gives you somewhere to put it.
Different stories. Different experiences. Different whys. One mission.
Maybe that is why calling America’s Warriors Care Package Projects a “care package project” almost doesn’t seem big enough anymore. Yes, they send boxes — countless boxes. But Dawn has also created a way for a community to act. Most of us can’t change the realities of deployment. We can’t make someone closer to home or fix every difficult condition our military members face. When something feels that big, it can be easy to convince ourselves there isn’t much one person can do.
Dawn has spent all these years proving otherwise. Buy something from the wish list. Donate supplies. Collect items at work. Pack a box. Give toward postage. Share the request with someone else. Show up and do what you can. Dawn gave people a way to turn “I wish I could help” into “Here’s what I can do.”
And when enough people do that, something pretty incredible happens. A few boxes become more boxes. A few volunteers become a team. Businesses join in. Community organizations join in. Veterans and military families join in. People who may never know the name of the service member who ultimately opens one of those packages become part of making sure that person knows someone back home cares.
A few boxes become a village.
Recently, America’s Warriors Care Package Projects shared another shipment headed to deployed troops. Dawn thanked the people who continue to donate and believe in the mission and talked about the team of military family members and veterans behind the work. She ended the post with five words that, after everything I have been trying to put into words about Dawn, seemed to say it perfectly: “This is what we do together.”
It is.
Nine years ago, Dawn looked at the conditions our military members were facing and asked, “Is that the best we can do for our military?” Today, countless boxes and nearly a quarter of a million dollars in postage have answered her question. But the real answer isn’t in the number of boxes. It’s in the village she built to get them there. It’s in every person who donated, packed, collected, gave, shared and showed up, regardless of what brought them there in the first place.
And ultimately, it’s in the service member who opens a box thousands of miles from home and knows someone remembers them.
That is what Dawn has built. A community where our reasons for showing up don’t have to be the same. We don’t have to carry the same experiences, the same emotions or even the same why. Dawn simply gives all of us somewhere to put whatever brought us there and reminds us that when we put it together, we can do something that matters.
Different whys. One mission.
It is our honor to recognize Dawn Geigan and America’s Warriors Care Package Projects with the 2026 We Are Carroll Rooted in the Community Award. Dawn started with a few boxes and a belief that we could do better. Today, an entire village is still answering that question with her, one box at a time.
And every one of those boxes carries the same message:
You are not forgotten.
Join Us as We Celebrate
The Community Foundation of Carroll County invites you to join us for the 2026 We Are Carroll Awards: Rooted & Rising Together on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster.
This special evening celebrates the individuals and organizations whose generosity, leadership, and service continue to strengthen Carroll County. Together, we’ll honor the 2026 award recipients, recognize our BFF Award winner, and celebrate the stories that remind us why community matters.
Whether you’re a longtime supporter of the Community Foundation or joining us for the first time, we hope you’ll be part of this inspiring evening as we celebrate the people whose roots continue to help Carroll County rise.
Tickets and sponsorship opportunities are available now. Reserve your seat today:
About Rooted Reflections
Rooted Reflections is a storytelling series by Jaclyn “Jacie” Mathias, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Carroll County, sharing the people, values, and legacies behind the 2026 We Are Carroll Awards: Rooted & Rising Together.
