The election is behind them, the president is in his second term, but the Simpson College Republicans have no intentions to simply rest on their laurels.

“Our group has grown so much in these past two semesters,” senior Alexi Jameson said. “Regardless of it being an elections year we have had some great works and involvement.”

The group’s focus after the election has been on the war in Iraq and those fighting it.

“We’ve done a lot to not only support the war in and of itself, but we’ve also done a lot to promote the troops’ morale,” said junior Chris Erickson, president of College Republicans.

At Christmastime the group organized Home for the Holidays, sending care packages containing soap, deodorant, toothpaste and other basic necessities overseas.

“We really just want to boost up their morale,” Erickson said.

One major goal for the group, before and after the election, has been to reach out and get more people on campus involved.

“We hope to get diverse people involved and maybe bring some of the segregated Simpson community together,” Jameson said.

The group’s increased presence on campus has made an impact and drawn people to become members.

“The reason I joined was because they had a booth that was petitioning for support for an amendment,” freshman Lynae Burke said. “I came to a meeting and they said they were starting this big project.”

That “big project” is a card drive in the churches of Indianola. Boxes of greeting cards were delivered to local churches for the congregations to write letters to soldiers.

“We’re just going to send thank you cards and appreciation for everything they’ve done,” Erickson said.