Last summer, area residents began chipping in to help overseas troops in Afghanistan by donating hundreds of cans of shaving cream to the war effort.

The cans weren't for cosmetic use, either: Soldiers on the front use the cream to mark the location of roadside explosives for passing convoys.

Area residents surpassed the original goal of 850 cases, or more than 10,000 cans of what became a vital military tool, in what was dubbed "Operation Shaving Cream."

Hall County native and U.S. Marine 1st. Lt. Paul Herdener will offer his words of appreciation during "An Evening of Thanks and Remembrance" at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville.

Herdener, a 2004 North Hall graduate, told his father, Tony Herdner, of the need for the shaving cream. From there, the communitywide effort grew as local organizations and businesses became involved.

"It was great to see Gainesville get involved and study up, basically, on what was going on (in the war)," Herdener said.

Herdener is on leave from his overseas deployment, which ended Oct. 1. He will return to Camp Pendleton, Calif., with his unit, the Marines' 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, part of the 1st Marine Division.

The Riverside event also will "acknowledge the men and women in service in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to remember those who sacrificed all," according to program notes provided by Lt. Col. Kevin Jarrard, the school's commandant of cadets.