On Wednesday, the Miss-Lou will send more than 40 of its friends, relatives and neighbors to train at Camp Shelby and, by the first of next year, to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

National Guard members will leave between 8 and 9 a.m., and everyone is being encouraged to line the streets, flags in hand, to give them a morale-boosting sendoff.

I&8217;m asking everyone who can possibly get an hour or two off work to be there, and to bring a friend and a homemade sign or two.

Seeing the looks of gratitude on soldiers&8217; faces when they&8217;re given a warm sendoff &8212; as in the case of the 1086th Transportation Company in Vidalia &8212; said it all.

No matter what you think of the war itself, each soldier is, after all, a man or woman who needs our support.

But according to soldiers who have already been overseas, one of the best things a person can do to support them is to take care of the soldiers&8217; families while they are gone.

According to those troops and their families, ways you can help the troops&8217; families while soldiers are gone include:

4Offering to help with specific chores around the house.

People who might never respond to a general offer of help might be glad to get assistance fixing a leaky sink at just the right moment.

And fixing and delivering a meal for a wife with small children would give them treat &8212; and give the mother a needed break.

4Offering them transportation &8212; to the doctor&8217;s office, the grocery store, wherever it&8217;s needed.

4Babysitting for the spouse that&8217;s left at home.

Again, that&8217;s to give the person the occasional breaks that are needed to take care of errands and to emotionally and physically recharge.

4Being a listening ear for someone with a loved one overseas.

Let a person with a spouse overseas express their concerns and know they&8217;re not alone in going through this.

4Offering spiritual support, both as individuals and through our churches.

4Inviting the person on an outing &8212; leaving the children at a relative&8217;s &8212; to free them, for a little while, from their responsibilities, letting them be themselves in another setting.

4Getting them connected. While it&8217;s easy to say most people have computers with E-mail, some still don&8217;t.

With that in mind, offer the use of your computer so that person can communicate electronically with his or her loved one overseas.

In addition, families of troops can attend local support groups to bond with others in their situation.

Other ways you can help support the troops include:

4Participating in &8220;drives&8221; to get toiletries and other supplies to our troops overseas.

4Writing letters or sending videotapes of home to the soldiers.

Even better: get your entire class, business or organization to do so.

When we go out of our way to be good friends and neighbors, both the troops and their families benefit.

Let&8217;s do our best to show support in action.

City Editor

Nita McCann

can be reached at 601-445-3554 or by e-mail at nita.mccann@natchezdemocrat.