Mail has always been a lifeblood for soldiers overseas.

But in the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where e-mail and webcams have largely supplanted snail mail, there simply aren't enough computers to go around.

Enter Kelley Sanelli, a 40-year-old single mom from Coraopolis who works two jobs and volunteers what spare time she has to veterans' causes.

An officer with the ladies' auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Ms. Sanelli has been collecting used laptops for the troops so they can send e-mail and transmit images across the ocean.

So far, she's delivered some 50 laptops donated by Eaton Corp. in Moon, where she works cleaning offices in the evenings after spending her days driving a school bus.

Her efforts have earned her national and state veterans' service awards, but winning honors isn't what motivates her. "I just thought, 'How can I help in some small way?' The soldiers just want to be able to talk to their families on a regular basis."

They often can't, at least not by computer, because while the military has plenty of communications centers set up with free computer access in both countries, soldiers often have to wait a long time to use one.

"There could be 10,000 men and women trying to get on 50 to 100 computers," said Ms. Sanelli.

She found that out from her cousin, Eric Wright, 23, of Ohio, a Navy Seabee now headed back for his third tour in Iraq. After his first tour in 2006, he came home and told his family it would be nice if he and other soldiers had computers. The family bought him one for his second tour and Ms. Sanelli took it upon herself to gather more.

After gaining approval from the VFW, she wrote to 25 local companies to ask if they'd donate. Twenty-four, she said, either declined or didn't answer.

"They thought I was loony," she said. "I thought more people would respond. I know a lot of people don't support the war effort. But these men and women suffer daily for us to have our freedom."

Eaton, whose employees know her from her work there with Nook and Cranny cleaning service, was the only company that came through.

She presented the first batch of obsolete computers to the military at the VFW convention in Harrisburg in June and has since shipped others to disabled veterans in Erie.

Ms. Sanelli said she also bought 15 webcams from Radio Shack to send overseas.

She has learned firsthand that her work is paying off. During an Armed Forces Radio interview she gave while in Harrisburg, she was surprised by a live video link with Marines who had received the laptops. One said he had been able to see his new baby for the first time because of the computer.

Ms. Sanelli has never served in the military, but her passion for veterans is rooted in her family. Her grandfather served in the Pacific in World War II and she said her father, stationed in Berlin during the Cold War, patrolled the Berlin Wall.

Respect for the military, she said, "was instilled in me."

She volunteers her time at the VA hospitals and is involved in raising money for the Fisher House Foundation, which builds "comfort houses" for the families of veterans at military bases and VA centers nationwide. A Fisher House will be built on the grounds of the Oakland facility here next year for an estimated $5 million, much of it from donations.

As for the laptops, Ms. Sanelli said she wants more -- from anyone who has some.

"I'm looking for any company that's willing to donate. I'll come and pick them up," she said. "It makes me feel good to do something for the veterans."