Colts Neck High Students Send Care Packages To U.S. Troops

COLTS NECK, NJ — Students in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) at both Colts Neck High School and the Marine Academy of Science and Technology on Sandy Hook helped pack care packages for U.S. troops this week with the Lt. Dennis W. Zilinski II Memorial Fund.

The fund was set up in memory of Zilinski, a Middletown native and U.S. soldier who was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb in 2005. Zilinski was only 23 years old when he was killed while serving his country.

In total this week, Monmouth County donated 118 boxes to U.S. servicemen and women stationed abroad. The fundraising drive was spearheaded by Freeholder Lillian G. Burry.

Monmouth County residents and businesses donated food, drinks, snacks, personal care items and more using collection boxes that were set up at several Monmouth County buildings.

The supplies were then assembled into care packages with handwritten notes of gratitude from Freeholder Burry, as well as students in the ROTC programs at the Marine Academy of Science and Technology (MAST) and Colts Neck High School.

“I am extremely proud to have partnered up with the Lt. Dennis W. Zilinski II Memorial Fund for the second year in a row,” Burry said. “The drive was made successful by the donations and support of the residents of Monmouth County. We hope that these gestures of gratitude will brighten the holidays for our armed forces who are stationed overseas.”

The boxes of care packages will be delivered in time for the holiday season.

“We are so grateful to everyone in Monmouth County who helped keep the memory of my son alive by participating in this drive and making it so successful,” said Marion Zilinski, Dennis' mother and co-founder of memorial fund that bears her son's name. “We hope this effort inspires other counties all over New Jersey to follow Monmouth County’s lead and run their own donation project."

"I know my son would be so proud of all that this donation drive accomplished," she added.

The Lt. Dennis W. Zilinski II Memorial Fund was founded in 2006, a year after he was killed.

Zilinski graduated from Christian Brothers Academy, where he was a member of the varsity swim team. He was nominated to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 2004. He completed Airborne School while a student at West Point.

After graduation from Ranger School, he was deployed to Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division in September of 2005. Only two months into his deployment, on November 19, 2005, Zilinski was killed by a roadside bomb that went off near Bayji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. He was one of the four American soldiers killed that day by a roadside bomb.

Since his untimely death, family and friends have united with the memorial fund to provide support to improve the morale and welfare of members of the U.S armed forces and their families.