Local couple survives cancer, raises fish, comforts soldiers and adopts aliens.

Cindy Stanley and Jerry English have sent thousands of cards and care packages to overseas American soldiers on a shoestring budget. They’ve raised hundreds of tilapia in their backyard in a homemade tank. And they’ve adopted three green aliens who sit on their windowsill. By themselves, these achievements are unlikely and inspiring. The fact they did it all while coping with two debilitating bouts with cancer only amplifies that.

With each mission they devised a simple plan based on heartfelt principles. After a 2003 “Support the Troops” rally in Monterey, Cindy and Jerry began brainstorming meaningful ways they could say thank you – Cindy pictured a soldier reading a nice letter while sipping on hot cocoa during the holidays. They shared the idea with fellow Lions Club members and friends and started a grassroots effort. Come Christmas, they sent 1,187 warm letters and hot cocoas to soldiers in Iraq.

“The American people are awesome,” Cindy says. “They just want to know what they can do to help.”

And locals wanted to do more. When Valentine’s Day arrived, the growing team sent chocolates; in the spring it was Easter baskets. More volunteers signed up and shipments started going out every six weeks: gum, candy, snacks, CDs, DVDs, batteries, socks. With the help of more than 200 volunteers, they have shipped roughly 10 tons of appreciation to date – the weight of one and a half African elephants – without forming a nonprofit, fundraising or holding a single committee meeting.

Among the mountain of photographs – Cindy cherishes six full photo albums – and an assortment of American flags, plaques and certificates awarded by high-ranking military officials, her favorite token is a simple one: a handwritten letter from a soldier stating how much her efforts meant to him on a rough day. Cindy is near tears as she shares it. “Nothing will make your day like a thank you [from the troops],” she says.

Cindy is familiar with rough days. In 2004, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Again, the couple’s strategy was simple and sincere. “Surround yourself with positive people,” says Cindy. When all of her hair fell out during treatment, her daughter helped decorate her scalp by shaving hearts and star patterns into her hair, dying it red, white and blue and even detailing the American flag on the back of her head. Within six months Cindy had beaten the cancer into remission.

But barely a year later, the cancer recurred. Between the three years and two episodes, Cindy braved seven surgeries, two rounds of chemotherapy and a month of radiation.

Through it she honed a hardy humility – “If I could wake up, get out of bed, and take a breath, everything else was whip cream” – and, fittingly, found strength in basic joys. She remembers one day seeing flowers outside her window and thinking how happy she was just to be able to have that moment.

Now she shares her experience. “It allowed me to talk to a lot of people about illness and dying,” she says. “It lets you know that you might die any day, and puts your life into perspective.”

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While the three green aliens in the window of their blue house on Casa Verde Street in Monterey come from different places – the first wandered over from a garage sale across the street, the second crash-landed on the front lawn one Christmas morning bearing a sign that said “Will You Marry Me?” (“Yes,” Cindy said), and the third listed itself on eBay – their mission is the same. Cindy dresses them up on holidays and gives them special outfits to wear; as with the care packages, the aim is to generate a simple but powerful thing: a smile.

Jerry has his own extraterrestrial-looking project going in the backyard. He’s jerry-rigged PVC pipes, clear plastic sheeting and tubing to create a greenhouse. Inside reside a 330-gallon industrial bulk container, currently home to 46 tilapia, and several cherry tomato vines. The wastewater from the fish is filtered into smaller ballasts containing duckweed, a plant that digests fish excrement and produces nitrates and nitrites, which are then distributed to a planter containing the tomatoes.

“Not too many people are connected to their food source,” Jerry says.

The miniature habitat is a small-scale prototype of a larger plan Jerry hopes to implement. As he leans towards retirement from his position with Monterey County installing 911-communication equipment, the couple is preparing to move to Prescott, Ariz., to cultivate a nonprofit called Warriors Heart (http://warriors-heart.org).

Their goal: to provide resort-style living for severely injured troops, police and firefighters. It will allow up to four couples at a time a place to reconnect and rejuvenate with their loved ones for a few weeks.

“[The veterans] get through the hard part of learning how to operate new limbs or how to live in a wheelchair,” Cindy says. “We’ll help do the rest.”

There Jerry plans to implement his tilapia technology on a completely handicap-accessible outfit that he can use to show Warriors Heart visitors how to start their own small aquaponics business or just have fun and feed themselves.

The fish they are currently harvesting will be ready to fry just in time for the couple’s going-away party at American Legion 694 in Marina on Nov. 16. From there, it’s more heartfelt projects.

“Every day is a blessing,” Cindy says. “Every day is an adventure.”