American Legion Post 524 thanked by a sergeant for providing care packages to their unit in southeast Asia. (Courtesy American Legion Post 524 website)
By Maddy Vitale
John Laughlin, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam in 1968, explained the significance of sending care packages to soldiers overseas.
“If we had a program like this, it certainly would have helped morale,” Laughlin reflected recently.
What began as a group of Ocean City American Legion Morvay-Miley Post 524 veterans making up four or five boxes of personal care items and snacks to ship to members of the military has grown to 15 packages a month.
“The Coffee Express Program,” as it is called, is in its ninth year of operation.
Post 524 Commander Bob Marzulli expressed his feelings about Coffee Express.
“The program gives the troops overseas a little bit of home," he said. "We get so many letters of thanks. The packages are always shared with their fellow veterans. This is what American Legion Post 524 is all about. Veterans helping veterans.”
On the fourth Wednesday of every month, a group of post members meet up and get to work. Army veteran Steve Cole chairs the post committee, which started with Laughlin years earlier.
The "Packages of Care,” as the members call them, contain snacks, fruit cups, toothpaste, socks, dental floss, candies, crackers, coffee, popcorn, nuts, cough drops and magazines.
"Coffee Express" care packages are filled to the top with a host of snacks and items for military men and women.
The items are purchased by Post 524 along with donations the post receives from area businesses and organizations. Coffee is donated from the Ocean City Coffee Company, taffy from Shriver’s and popcorn from Johnson's Popcorn.
Cole and other volunteers go shopping, buy a lot in bulk and make a morning of creating what they hope will be a meaningful gesture to service men and women who receive the packages.
Packages are sent to men and women serving in places overseas, including Afghanistan and Iraq. The USO assists the post in selecting the people and locations to send the packages to.
Post 524 members work together to prepare the boxes. On Wednesday, Marty Mozzo filled plastic bags with candies and tossed them into the boxes. Bob McMurray plopped personal care items into a row of boxes. Meanwhile, Norm Lindley looked through each box to see where he could fit some extra items.
Bob McMurray, glasses, John Aitken and Norm Lindley, hat, fill the boxes with snacks and personal care items. Marty Mozzo, to the right, fills bags with candy.
John Aitken, of Sons of the American Legion, also helped fill the care packages.
“I enjoy doing it,” Aitken said while picking up some snacks to put into a box. “I enjoy working with the guys and doing something for the active duty men and women serving our country.”
That is the very reason making the boxes is so gratifying for the volunteers, Cole said.
“Today we show our caring and concern and feeling for those who have sacrificed and those who sacrifice just as we did,” Cole said.
He noted that working alongside his fellow veterans to make up the special boxes is so fulfilling.
The goal is to help those who serve, because there is no better feeling than the reward of giving back, Cole noted.
“Hopefully, it will bring a touch of home to a person serving in the military,” he said.
American Legion Post 524 is thanked by a sergeant for providing care packages to her unit stationed in southwest Asia. (Courtesy American Legion Post 524 website)
Post 524, in turn, receives letters from military members overseas thanking them for the care packages.
The following letter was written by a member of the military stationed in southwest Asia:
Post members Norm Lindley and Bob McMurray tape up packages to get ready to ship overseas.
