Middletown Council President Challenges Newport in a Chocolate Drive for Troops

You can't go far this time of year without running into chocolate practically everywhere—at supermarkets, gas stations, fundraising tables, reception areas, workplace kitchens, office supply stores, secret stashes, glove boxes, heck, even hotel pillows.

Now, Middletown has made it a mission to bring such readily accessible comforts of home to those who miss it dearly—American troops in Afghanistan.

Town Council President Christopher Semonelli has established an official collection box for chocolate at Town Hall for donors to drop off the sweet stuff for the troops, an idea that grew, he says, from hearing a radio interview on WADK-Newport last week with North Kingstown native U.S. Navy Lt. Alexandria L. Prescott, who's stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan. She'd mentioned that she and the other troops miss "creature comforts" of home, noting that chocolate is difficult to find there, or find fresh.

After first contacting the Armed Forces' Public Affairs, Semonelli eventually reached Prescott by e-mail to find out exactly what kinds of chocolate should be sent. She reportedly replied with great enthusiasm, as well as a promise to share the chocolate with the other troops.

At the top of the list?

Snickers.

According to Prescott, other "troop favorites"  include "Three Muskateers, Kit Kat bars, Twix,  Nestle Crunch, Milky Way, both Hershey's Kisses and Hershey's Hugs, and white chocolate.

After an initial exchange of e-mails last week with Prescott, Semonelli pulled together his first donor bag of snack-size Snickers bars, and happened to mention what he was doing to someone associated with Tiverton schools. That, in turn, kicked off a school-wide effort to raise more chocolate than Middletown for the troops.

Semonelli saw this as an opportunity to do something on a larger scale for the troops.

"They appreciate these creature comforts of home they miss so much," he said, "but after reading the e-mails back and forth, it felt like they might also be happy to have these [e-mail] interactions with people from back home, strangers reaching out to them, knowing they care."

And if chocolate could inspire more people to do that, so be it.

"And with Halloween too, a lot of households tend to have extras at the end of the night," Semonelli noted. "What they don't hand out, they can donate. Or the kids too—maybe they end up collecting more than they're going to eat, or they collect a little extra for the troops and that's their contribution."

Semonelli decided to extend the chocolate challenge throughout Middletown and announced the chocolate drive at Monday's Town Council meeting.

He also issued a challenge to neighboring communities.

"I'd also like to invite communities like Portsmouth and Newport to see if they can raise more chocolate than Middletown for the troops," he said.

Asked about the security of the chocolate—that is, how could he ensure that all the chocolate would make it out of Town Hall intact—Semonelli did acknowledge some concern over the sweet tooth of one particular council member, but decided to keep that person nameless.