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Emergency services depts donate to troops by Heather Woolwine Public Relations Sometimes it’s difficult to get into the holiday spirit. Maybe it’s because the holiday decorations go up right after Halloween or because the pressure to find the perfect gift is full throttle by mid-November. And let’s face it, the Christmas spirit is hard to conjure when you have 78-degree days in December. But no matter how hard it might be to give ourselves completely over to the holiday season, imagine what it must be like for soldiers who must uncover it in the Middle Eastern desert, where a bottle of hand sanitizer is as great a gift as the year’s hottest Ipod.   This year, soldiers and health care workers of the 28th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort Bragg, N.C., will get a little holiday cheer thanks to the efforts of Pediatric Emergency Services, Adult Emergency Services (1W), Meducare, Ashley River Creative Arts School, and Boy Scout Pack #31.   Melanie Wakefield, R.N., had an epiphany when watching a CNN report on combat hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan that led to the creation of the effort.   “As I was watching this special, I recognized one of the physicians as someone that I had worked with before and that just really brought it home for me,” she said. “All of us in emergency services know plenty of people who funded their health education through serving in the military and now they are over there. It just really hit home and I wanted to do something to make things a little easier for our counterparts over there.”   Also indicative of the respect for MUSC’s military employees, the effort began in the Peds ER but quickly spread to encompass all of emergency services and local school children. By deadline for donations on Dec. 11, four large boxes were filled with everything from Christmas stockings and hats to personal hygiene items, snacks, games and MUSC T-shirts for the approximately 450 people currently working there.     Friday, Dec. 15, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.