Sikh Temple members, Oak Creek leaders prep soldier care packages

Sikh volunteers help prepare care packages for troops

OAK CREEK -- Oak Creek police are set to release portions of dash cam video taken during the August 5th shooting at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek on Monday, September 10th. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Sikh volunteers helped out with a city-sponsored charity drive to benefit troops overseas. Volunteers said they were happy for the opportunity to lend a hand.

Gurmukh Singh stacked boxes in a trunk Sunday afternoon. Later in the week, the contents will become care packages for soldiers serving overseas. Singh says it's the least he can do for charity.

"They've been so supportive after the events of August 5th. They reached out to us and once we found out they were doing an event to support the USO, we said 'what can we do to help?'" Singh said.

In the weeks after the Sikh Temple shooting, Oak Creek City Clerk Catherine Roeske got to know Singh. She hopes events like Sunday's USO care package drive will bring a sense of normalcy to Oak Creek.

"It's not necessarily getting back to where we were. We wanna move forward and the events that happened I think only escalated everyone's awareness for caring for each other and a level of tolerance that we now need to have," Roeske said.

The Oak Creek community wants to focus on the future, and Sikh volunteers say releasing the frantic footage from police dash cams taken that Sunday morning will help everyone move on.

"When it comes out, it's obviously going to be shocking and solemn for everybody, but it just gives another reason to keep going and not let anything hold us back," one Sikh volunteer said.

"Any time you have a reminder of those events, it really puts in perspective what's important and so being out here today, doing this kind of work is gonna be underlined by seeing that kind of footage," another Sikh community member said.

Oak Creek Girl Scouts will turn the donations into individual care packages. The city of Oak Creek hopes to turn the USO care package drive into an annual event.

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