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Members of John Lubeck Jr.’s troop 1st battalion 9th Marines sending holiday wishes back home in 2013.

John Lubeck Jr. in Afghanistan during his first deployment in 2011.

Sue Sell, left, of Jefferson Township and John Lubeck, Sr. of Blakely prepare packaging for shipment to servicemen overseas at Liberty Reality and Appraisal Services in Dickson City for Finishing the Fight. Looking on is Marine Cpl. John Lubeck, Marine advisor to Finishing the Fight. Sell’s son Marine Cpl. Christopher Sell is currently serving somewhere in Africa.

Inside a care package that will find its way to servicemen overseas shipped by the organization Finishing the Fight.

Finishing the Fight volunteer Cynthia Opalka of Waymart assembles boxes of goodies that will be placed into care packages and sent overseas to United States servicemen.

Care packages at Liberty Reality and Appraisal Services in Dickson City are prepared for shipment overseas to United States servicemen.

Many military troops are home from their fight in Afghanistan. Angel Lubeck is a mother of one soldier and she’s still fighting a fight of her own — making sure the soldiers still overseas know they’re thought about.

Her organization, Finishing the Fight, began organizing 5K walks and runs and sending care packages to local military deployed overseas in 2011. The Blakely woman hopes to bridge the distance between Luzerne and Lackawanna counties by calling on more Luzerne County residents to send in names and addresses of deployed loved ones to add to the monthly care package list.

Finishing the Fight engages community members to raise funds to send “Love From Home” to deployed soldiers in the form of personal toiletries and snacks and other small gifts. Items which are not donated, like video games, are purchased by Lubeck and her group through donations.

“I have noticed that we are not receiving names and addresses from Luzerne County,” Lubeck said. “And I need to spread the word around. We used to have 60 to 70 troops to send care packages to at one time. A lot of soldiers from Afghanistan have since come home, but I hear that there are troops in Iraq now who could use our help. That’s why I am reaching out to Luzerne County residents.”

Lubeck began the organization and race two weeks after her son John joined the Marines and left for boot camp in 2010. At the end of that year, he told his family he was training for a tour in Afghanistan.

“I needed to figure out a way to keep myself occupied while he was gone…. it was a matter of keeping my sanity,” Lubeck said. “A friend of John’s said to me, ‘Hey, why don’t you spend your time organizing a race in John’s honor in order to benefit him and the other Marines who are with him.’ At that moment this race was formed in my mind. I discussed it with John and I asked him to come up with a name for the race and he and one of his fellow Marines came up with the name Finishing the Fight.”

Finishing the Fight has now come full circle for her son, Pfc. John Lubeck Jr., 22, who is home after two combat deployments. A full-time student at Lackawanna College, he also volunteers with the group shopping and mailing packages.

“There’s no other greater feeling in the world then when they tell you the mail is coming,” he said. “It’s not even really about the contents. It’s just something to look forward to. Especially the longer you’ve been over there, the more you lose touch with reality, and getting mail really brings you back in.”

He is happy to be helping Finishing the Fight because “I still have brothers and sisters overseas.”

The first race, sponsored by the group, was held on June 4, 2011, a significant date because if Lubeck’s son were home, that would have been the day of his birthday party.

“With a lot of hard work and dedication we had a very successful event and a lot of new friendships were made along the way,” the mother said.

It was during that time Angel Lubeck collected personal care items and sent more than 300 packages to the 1st battalion 9th Marines in Afghanistan.

“Every soldier who has received a package is appreciative of the fact that it was from a stranger,” she said. “They can’t believe that strangers are thinking of them.”

Angel Lubeck said one soldier even sent her a T-shirt as a Christmas present. “Imagine me getting a gift from a soldier,” she said, still in disbelief. “The card said how special it was to get a package from another mother.”

The work and more care packages have continued throughout the past four years along with a yearly 5K walk/run held in June, which starts at Mellow Park in Blakely and goes through Olyphant. This is the group’s major fundraiser.

Angel Lubeck said she is now concerned that with less names coming in, the 5K walk/run in June may have to be postponed this year.

“At Finishing the Fight we are reminded that wars are fought by sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and cousins,” she said. “Finishing the Fight is about more than runners and walkers, it is about sending love and support to the faceless men and women, the sons, fathers, brothers, and cousins, who are fighting for us. ”