Thanks to students serving on a CAN DO committee, local military personnel stationed abroad can receive a care package this holiday season.

CAN DO’s Student Action Committee is seeking names of servicemen and women with local ties to send them packages as part of Operation: CAN DO, a collection drive of food, personal care and entertainment items for members of the military. CAN DO has partnered with American Legion Post 473 in Freeland for the past several years to coordinate this successful drive.

Those who have a loved one stationed overseas are encouraged to submit his or her name and delivery information so a care package can be sent. Packages will be assembled in early November and shipped in time to arrive for the holidays.

For the fourth consecutive year, CAN DO, Greater Hazleton’s economic development agency, presented its Curb Appeal Awards to industrial park tenants who have beautified and maintained the visual appeal of their properties.

The awards were presented to companies in Humboldt, Humboldt North, McAdoo and Valmont industrial parks and the CAN DO Corporate Center during an industry mixer held Wednesday at Residence Inn by Marriott in Humboldt Station.

A New York company that was founded in 1997 out of the trunk of a car and has grown to be one of the top 10 online cigar retailers in the nation is moving its operations to the CAN DO Corporate Center in Drums.

CAN DO Director of Administration Nancy R. Stasko has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce Athena Award, sponsored by Berger Family Dealerships.

The Award, presented each year to a Hazleton Area businesswoman “for outstanding professional achievement,” will be presented at the 119th Annual Meeting of the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce. The dinner meeting will take place on Thursday, May 19th at the Genetti Best Western Inn & Suite Hall of Presidents.

CAN DO and the Valley Country Club co-sponsored an industry mixer at the country club Wednesday.

Leaders from various companies throughout Greater Hazleton attended, mingling with fellow business representatives. The event was chaired by Charlie Burkhardt, CAN DO Community Relations Committee chairman.

A local Marine who recently returned from an overseas tour visited Freeland Elementary/Middle School Friday morning to speak to the students who helped collect items for a care package through CAN DO and the Freeland American Legion.

Marine 1st Lt. Jeff Broyan received a care package through “Operation: CAN DO,” a drive organized by CAN DO’s Student Action Committee and coordinated through the Freeland American Legion to provide entertainment, personal hygiene and food items to servicemen and women serving abroad. Freeland Elementary/Middle School’s Builders Club is among the groups across Greater Hazleton that collects items for the troops.

CAN DO has announced that Capriotti’s is constructing a new banquet hall at the entrance to McAdoo Industrial Park.

The new facility will be called Capriotti’s Palazzo. The 10,000-square-foot catering hall will seat up to 375 people.

Businessmen and women at a conference in the United Kingdom recently learned more about Greater Hazleton and its advantages as a business location from one of the newest companies to locate within the CAN DO Corporate Center.

A company in the Humboldt Industrial Park is crediting its employees’ dedication to safety in the workplace as the primary reason it recently received a prestigious national labor safety designation.

Simmons Manufacturing Co.’s Humboldt plant has earned the “star” worksite designation from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The star designation is the highest honor in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP).

CAN DO, Inc., Greater Hazleton’s economic development agency, has partnered with the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry to offer small business financing programs in Luzerne County.