Bradley Corporation collects hundreds of dollars worth of goods for troops overseas

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- A local company is trying to send a little joy to troops stationed overseas. Employees at Bradley Corporation in the Milwaukee area donated so many times, the group's collection bin kept having to be emptied to make room for more.

The effort to send a little love to two military men started simply enough at Bradley Corporation.

"Patty Molzen works out of our shop and she has a son right now serving in the military for the army. She had mentioned that she talks to him on a regular basis and needed some supplies so we said well let's see if we can help out with that," said Bradley Corporation Vice President of Human Resources, Diane Rudy.

It turned out another employee also has a son in the service -- and both men are currently stationed overseas.

"The email went out and everybody said we have to do this, we have to support them -- it's who we are and what we do here at Bradley," said Bradley Corporation Director of Sales, Tim Schoenecker.

Signs calling for help went out and the donations started to rush in. The company's known for its washfountains -- and they filled an antique one with the gifts.

"That washfountain was continually overfilled day after day, week after week, to the point where we actually had two full pallets to send overseas to these two troops," said Schoenecker.

Snacks, magazines, you name it -- these employees brought them in.

"Our sales department and marketing, they collected about $700 and just went out and bought cases of all kinds of snacks," said Rudy.

Raising donations is nothing new for this group, they regularly support local charities -- but Diane Rudy says this cause just really hit home.

"When someone has a son or daughter that's serving in the military that really does trigger some extra generosity I think," said Rudy.

And the group shipped the two pallets of goodies out earlier on Friday, March 20th. They're hoping it will be to the men within the next week or two.