Operation Interdependence delivers notes of caring to troops
By: PHILIP K. IRELAND - Staff Writer

OCEANSIDE ---- During the last 10 years that he worked as a Marine Corps supply officer, Albert R. Renteria wondered how to deliver goodwill to the troops without further taxing the taxpayer and the supply line.

Operation Interdependence founder Albert Renteria and area manager Carol Grice put up a banner as they start to unpack at the new home for Operation Interdependence in the New Song Church in Oceanside on Tuesday. HAYNE PALMOUR IV Staff Photographer

He needed something heavy with meaning but light in weight, something easy to deliver, something that would warm a soldier's heart without breaking his back. Something sweet for mind and soul.

Renteria's answer: written expressions of caring, scrawled and scribbled by young and old, guaranteed to warm a foxhole.

Enter Operation Interdependence.

The organization founded by Renteria in 2001 now boasts 13 distribution centers across the United States.

An army of one million registered volunteers collects notes from Boy Scouts, Hollywood types, school kids, church elders and just plain folks, and package them in a quart-sized plastic bag along with a toothbrush or breath mints or some other featherweight trifle.

"It's not what's in the bag that matters, but what stands behind it," Renteria said.

The "what stands behind it" is akin to the marketing idea behind Cracker Jack, said Renteria, who retired as a chief warrant officer in 2000 after 26 years in the Marine Corps.

"What is it about Cracker Jacks?" he asked.

"It's the prize," he answered. "It's the idea, not the thing."

Renteria collected a message from Maureen McCormick ---- known to sitcom-watching baby-boomers as "Marcia Brady" ---- at the American Music Awards in 2003: "Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love you."

From Angelina in Los Angeles; "Stay safe. Your strength, courage and bravery are appreciated. You are not forgotten. We love you and pray for your return."

"These words, these signatures, are what we deliver to the troops," Renteria said.

Operation Interdependence delivers the care packages to 50,000 troops each month, Renteria said last week from new warehouse space donated by the New Song Community Church in Oceanside.

"This organization is a blessing to our community, and we have a lot of military folks in our congregation," said Steve Foster, the church's executive pastor. "Operation Interdependence does a great thing to serve our military families around the world."

To sweeten the deal, Renteria's volunteers attend trade shows, conventions and conferences to collect corporate cast-offs and leftovers ---- potato chips, jerky, gum, cereal. About 70 percent of everything they ship comes from corporate donations.

"Every sample corporate America makes, we get," Renteria said.

Volunteers assemble and seal the bags, which are packed 50 to a box ---- the typical size of a platoon.

"Every bag is inspected, every letter read," he said.

The 13-inch boxes are addressed and shipped directly to unit leaders, and do not require special handling, said Renteria, who designed to program to avoid using soldier man-hours to move mail.

Renteria cited a new government study that pegs to annual cost of moving military mail at $1 billion.

The "grab-and-go" bags slip easily in a pocket and provide the troops a treat and a warm thought when needed.

For more information on Operation Interdependence, call 760-966-7488 or send email to oi@oidelivers.org

Contact staff writer Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or pireland@nctimes.com.