Posted at: 04/07/2008 4:17 PM | WHEC.com
Updated at: 04/15/2009 6:15 PM
By: Berkeley Brean

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2008 ESL Jefferson Award Winner: Dennis Gellasch

There is a man in the area who could do anything he wants. Spend more time with his family, more time playing bridge, or more time in Florida. Instead, Dennis Gellasch spends hours just about every night packaging books and food for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For Dennis Gellasch, the worthy are soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen at war.

He says, “The reality is it is part of our way of life that we got to protect and they're doing a heck of a job and I think from our point of view we got to support that effort. Like it or not, we got to do that.”

Gellasch packages thousands of paper back books and sends them overseas - part of operation paper back. He has to screen them to make sure they're not offensive and in good shape. And so far he's shipped more than 3,000 books. But he doesn't stop there.

Gellasch has started his own campaign to get care packages to the troops. All the personal stuff they can't get on the front lines including new socks.

Nancy Gellasch said, “'m very proud of him. I'm proud of what he does. And I don't think he always gets the kind of support he should get from home when he does it. But yes I’m very proud of him.”

Dennis added, “It's funny when you get the responses back on the thank yous. It's very nice to know that hey, it's part of home and it brought them back and their positive attitude shall I say.”

There's a reason for Gellasch's work. He's a former marine and carries the motto of always faithful to this day.

“If you take things from life and never return any, it's not going to balance. So this is part of giving back. This is part of how I was raised.”

Dennis Gellasch also volunteers with seniors in Webster, even giving them driving lessons. He says it's more of the balance in his life.