Soldiers
“I’m from a military family,” said DeMaria, “born in a military hospital in Germany. My husband and I are just old enough to have missed Vietnam and I never served, but when I heard about a care package program in 2003, I wanted to get involved.”
When that group dismantled, DeMaria took it over, at first expecting only to get rid of the surplus supplies she’d inherited that were taking up space in her Willow Glen garage.
At first they partnered with the American Red Cross, but the group kept growing, taking in donations from individuals, churches, schools, scout troops — there’s a wide range of folks who want to pass along some solace.
The San Jose Giants hold two packing party events each year, although Operation: Care and Comfort collects and ships yearround.
Frank Keffer, a retired San Jose police officer, was one of the first recipients when he was stationed in Iraq back in 2003, and clearly remembers what he got in that box. Tinleigh Chinery, 6, delivers magazines at Sunday’s packing party. For deployed military personnel, opening the packages is akin to a Christmas morning gift session, said veteran Frank Keffer, a former San Jose police officer.
Keffer and others invariably described the moment as being akin to a Christmas morning gift unveiling.
“It was a San Jose Sharks T-shirt and a San Francisco Giants baseball hat,” said Keffer.
“Peanuts and bubble gum. Just little creature comforts from home.”
And don’t forget the socks. There was a whole assembly team of young volunteers opening bags of socks and packaging them for deployment.
“A new pair of boot socks? That’s a blessing,” said Keffer, now a volunteer for Operation: Care and Comfort.
The group also teams with the Giants to give away tickets to sporting events and concerts to returning troops and family members, and as a morale booster puts out an annual trading card set that features short bios of current and former military members.
The cost of Operation: Care and Comfort lies largely in the shipping. DeMaria said that when they started it cost about a dollar a pound to get the goods out there. Now it’s more like $3 a pound, and it can add up quickly.
Sunday’s goal was to ship 250 boxes. At about 50 pounds each, that ends up approaching $40,000.
But Keffer said the reactions can be priceless, recalling one group of seniors from a community center who wrote little notes by hand to accompany the goodies.
“They just said simple things, ‘Good luck, keep your head down,’ that sort of stuff,” Keffer said.
“But just recently there was a soldier who came back and went down to the community center to thank each of them individually. He’d gotten that card in 2008 and kept it in his wallet for eight years. I’m telling you that means it meant something.”
For more information about Operation: Care and Comfort, visit www.occusa.org.