A national veterans support group started by a Hall County native is sponsoring a dinner cruise on Lake Lanier Thursday to help fund a shipping event next month.

Hearts of America has scheduled the "Patriotic Dinner & Cruise" for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Aqualand Marina, 6800 Lights Ferry Road, in South Hall.

Passengers will board a yacht that is 18 feet by 80 feet. Tickets for the event, which features a barbecue meal and a silent auction, are $50 per person.

Boarding begins at 5:30 p.m. Also, parking is available at Chattahoochee Baptist Church at 6325 Lights Ferry Road. Passengers will be shuttled to and from the marina, said Eddie Ray, the organization's Georgia chapter president.

U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, has said he plans to attend, "but this is not a political event," Ray said. "This is about our military. It's never about us — it's always about the guys and girls in uniform."

Money raised from the event will go toward an event where Hearts of America will accept care packages brought by families of deployed loved ones.

The free "shipping clinic" is set for 2- 7 p.m. July 8 at Lakewood Baptist Church, 2235 Thompson Bridge Road.

"Not only are we helping a soldier seven or 8,000 miles away, we're helping a family here locally by enabling them to send (a package)," Ray said. "Maybe it's a picture of newborn son that Daddy hasn't gotten to see yet."

Amy Paden, who attended North Hall High School before moving to Kansas, where she now lives, founded the group in 2006, with the main goal of sending needed items to military personnel overseas.

"We also try to fulfill special requests and provide items for humanitarian efforts," states the Hearts of America website.

The events of 9/11 and then later, a co-worker losing her son in Iraq at the start of the war, inspired her to start the organization, she said in a 2009 interview while visiting her grandmother in North Hall.

"Incidents like that got me thinking that it's really a blessing to be here in the states," she said.

Ray said Hearts of America also will accept donated items from people who don't have a loved one in the military.

"We've got different soldiers we deal with and we've got their addresses," he said.

The organization will accept all items the U.S. Postal Service allows for shipping. It won't accept alcohol or tobacco, which require a federal license, or pornography, Ray said.

"We can figure up how many boxes we can ship with (a certain) amount of money, and that will be our cutoff point," he said. "We're hoping we run out. That would be a blessing to the families."