04/19/03

Bags and boxes, love and caring mesh with students to become a part of history

By Jane Clifford
FAMILY EDITOR

JIM BAIRD / Union-Tribune Members of the Magnolia Elementary School student council work with fifth-grade teacher Verona Levina (right) to pack up boxes that will go to men and women serving overseas.

It was a scene that is repeated monthly at Magnolia Elementary School in Carlsbad, where students are a part, however small, of history in the making.

Fifth-grade teacher Verona Levine makes sure they see the connection between learning and living, whether that's reading about the war in Iraq in her current events class time or packing up creature comforts to be shipped off to deployed troops.

Levine knows that much of what she is quizzing them on from their current issue of Scholastic News could well show up in their high school history textbooks not long from now.

And then there are the lessons learned from participating in Operation Interdependence™, a civilian-to-military delivery system® allowing these young people and hundreds of other Americans to express their care and concern for the men and women called to duty half a world away from the comforts of home.

The goal is ... well, let the students explain:

"What we're doing is giving fun stuff for the military while they're out to sea," Taylor Tollack, 10, says authoritatively.

"Like candy – Smartees and Lifesavers – and lollipops," adds Caroline Goodger, 9.

"Ms. Levine buys the candy at the store," explains Matt Readbold, a fourth-grader, who thinks it's a great thing to include for the troops in the goodie bags.

"Oh yeah, it's pretty juicy and it keeps their mouth from getting too dry. Some of them are in the desert, you know."

They're also probably bored, these kids figure, so toys go in the bags, too.

"Squirt guns and yo-yos and cards and poppers, those things with the strings you pop on New Year's Eve," rattles off Marques Dix, 11.

"And if they don't get what they want in their bag, they can trade with somebody else," reasons Matt. Or they can read, when they have a few free minutes.

"We put in magazines, like Sports Illustrated, and paperback books," confides Blake Kueny, 11. "But they have to be light so they can carry them with them."

Levine wanders among the kids, checking on their progress.

"We have to squish all the air out," she says, raising her voice over the dozen or so others in the room. Air-filled bags take up more room in a box than deflated ones, she tells them. "Are you squishing?"

They were, by opening, flattening, then reclosing the bags to be sure.

"This one's a little heavy," she says, handing it back and beginning to weigh in her hands all the bags on the table. "Remember, the box can't weigh more than 30 pounds. That's about as much as your little sister or brother weighs."

Brigin Zachry, 10, jumps in, explaining that the weight of things is very important. The boxes can't be too heavy to lift, and the goodie bags themselves can't be too heavy to carry in the pocket of a uniform by a soldier on the move.

"We can only put 50 packs in a box," she says solemnly. "But we also put letters in."

Elann Mash, 9, recalls what her most recent note said: "I told them I'm glad they're fighting for our freedom and that they must be brave to leave their families."

Chloe Lazarus, 10, sighs. "I should have said that in mine."

Whatever they say and whatever they send is most welcome to the soldiers and sailors on the receiving end.

Seaman Lauer, aboard the Constellation, confirmed that in a recent e-mail to Levine.

"The gifts are great ... Everyone has been chasing one another with water guns and wearing the Chinese yo-yos to death. The books help break up the obsession with the television, especially with the bad news coming every five minutes ... Keep the faith in this whole thing turning out for the better and root for the home team."

Reading countless e-mails like that makes Al Renteria's smile spread all the way across his face. It's just what the 46-year-old retired chief warrant officer had in mind when he created Operation Interdependence™ in December 2001: to provide the troops with some of the everyday things they miss – sports clippings, mouthwash, shaving supplies, sunflower seeds, shampoo and hair conditioner, dental floss, those ever-popular baby wipes for instant showers and even pantyhose, which may not look great on a gun but go a long way toward keeping the desert dust out of its vital parts.

His experience helped him easily coordinate with military leaders to make sure the program helps – not hurts – their efforts.

"Care packaging can produce an unintended consequence," Renteria explains, pointing to one of the boxes in Levine's classroom.

He ought to know. It was his job during Operation Desert Storm to allocate human resources, get Marines where they were needed.

When care packages started arriving in Kuwait, back in 1991, he recalls things quickly became worse than Christmastime at the post office. Unlike the Postal Service, though, the military couldn't hire a whole bunch of part-timers to get the job done. A logjam developed. Renteria got a call. Could he get some people to help with deliveries?

Well, yes, he could, but he'd be diverting a service man or woman from his or her primary role as a soldier to deal with all this loving care.

Renteria isn't opposed to care packages. He knows their value, whether in peacetime or wartime, for troops on long deployments, away from home and family. He just knew there had to be a better way.

Now there is.

"We are essentially creating the work force from this side of the fence," Renteria says. The delivery system he created "ensures everyone gets a piece of home every month, just like clockwork."

It works so well that the number of care packages delivered has grown from 1,200 in early 2002 to 4,000 in early 2003. As the number of troops deployed to the Middle East increased, so did the number of goodie bags. This month, Operation Interdependence™ will handle 16,000 care packages, Renteria says happily. And there are no logjams with his system. The boxes get delivered to the field, opened and the troops come by and grab a goodie bag.

In a takeoff, he says, on the "Keep it simple, stupid" adage, his motto is "Keep it simply simple."

A few minutes with Renteria and you're dazzled with how he's combined his military experience, a master's in computer science and a can-do attitude to make this all happen.

But wasn't 26 years of active duty enough?

"No," he says. "Service never ends for a Marine."

His enthusiasm is infectious. Operation Interdependence™ has spread across the country, where 1,100 elementary schools and countless groups have enlisted to serve.

There are several ways people can become involved, Renteria says:

By registering as a coordinator to ensure each package meets the standards set by Operation Interdependence™ and taking responsibility of the entire contents;

By supplying items for coordinators to consider using in their packages;

By donating funds to help operate the program that, Renteria says, "will make all the difference in the world on how we support our military in the future."

If the student council members at Magnolia Elementary are any indication, Renteria is right.

Levine, the council's moderator, saw this as a good service project for the group and for everyone else who would be helping by gathering goodies and raising money to get those care packages on their way.

She is what Operation Interdependence™ calls a "box coordinator." As such, she makes sure that her team – the students – assemble a 14-by-14-by-14-inch box of C-Rats^TM, short for Civilian Rations^TM, that is the right weight, contains the right stuff and gets to the right place to go on its way. The price is not always right, though. The average postage to send a box is $30, some of it covered by a bunch of little bitty fund-raisers that Levine and the kids organize. Other times, the money just comes out of her pocket.

And that's fine with her. In this city, this school, so close to Camp Pendleton, the war is personal. Some of the kids and faculty and staff members are waiting for parents, aunt, uncles, family friends and neighbors to come home safely. And Levine has taught the other kids to understand.

"It makes us think about the people out serving in the war," says McCall Mishler, 10.

But most important, says Colleen McMahon, 11: "It tells them someone cares about them."

Getting involved

If you'd like to become involved with Operation Interdependence™, here are some guidelines

To donate to care packages:

Items should fit in a quart-size, reclosable plastic storage bag. (Other items can be considered, but will require some advance coordination.) Check for unauthorized items. As a supplier, you will be required to register and be accountable for your items. Items that are not acceptable by the military inspection team will be discarded and not returned to the supplier.

To make cash donations:

All contributions will go into a general fund to cover program costs as needed, unless specially declared otherwise. Your donation can be applied for postage, items, awards, events, etc. Since donations are made to a nonprofit organization, you may consider them charitable contributions for tax purposes, and you will be provided with a tax ID for your records.

For more information on the group, go to www.oidelivers.org

Following is a list of typical C-Rats^TM:

Beef Jerky*

Books

Cameras (disposable)

Camper style foods*

Candy*

Cards

Chapstick

Dental floss

Facial tissues

Fast food

Hot sauce packets*

Flashlights

Girl Scout cookies*

Gum

Magazines

Moist Wipes

Music CDs

Nerf toys (small footballs, etc.)

Odor Eaters (for boots)

Pencils

Pens

Personal message

Phone cards

Playing cards

Postage

Powdered drink mix* (non-alcoholic)

Razors

Sardines*

Sheets of stationery

Snacks* (cookies, granola bars)

Tea bags*

Toiletries (travel sizes)

Toothbrushes

Toothpaste

Travel games

Travel mugs

Tuna snack kits*

Vienna Sausages*

All food items with an asterisk (*) must be manufacture-sealed.

Troops say thanks for thoughtful packages

April 19, 2003

In e-mails to Operation Interdependence™, military men and women voice their gratitude to students, company co-workers and individuals who have "adopted" them and send monthly care packages filled with necessities and a few welcome "luxuries:"

"I would just like to thank you, your family, your organization and friends for sending us a great package and keeping us in your thoughts. Everything was a hit with the platoon and we even managed to give some out to other sections that did not receive anything. The socks were a welcome sight."

"My name is Nick. I'm from Washington state and joined the Marine Corps in February 1999 when I was 20 years old.

"Thank you very much for the care package. It means more than you will ever know, knowing that people back home care enough about us to take the time to send a little something means a lot. . . .

"Getting your package was like a little Christmas, even if we could see through the plastic bags."

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"My name is Matthew. I'm from Colorado. I am 22 and have been in the Marine Corps for over 3½ years. I am a machine gunner.

"I try to enjoy every creature comfort I can get. The real treasure of your packages is not what was in them, but what your efforts and the efforts of everyone else shows . . . "

Semper Fidelis

Matthew, Lance Cpl., USMC

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"It was wonderful to get your care package, and the Marines and soldiers (we swept up a couple of soldiers along the way) had a great time with the candies and other things. It takes very special people to take time and their own money to send out much-needed gifts to those of us out here, and it lets us all know that folks back home are thinking of us!

"As far as your letter concerning females in the unit, yes we have a few, and the packages that had the little scrubby things made them all VERY happy. Field showers using water bottles are what we are using, and those little things will make the ladies happy.

"Once again, thank you both so very much for your gifts. They brought a little piece of the States to this place."

Sincerely,

Ward

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