It's all on a table in the hallway for anyone to take. Candy, books, toothbrushes and toothpaste, stationary, all kinds of odds and ends. Everyday someone opens a couple of the boxes and puts the stuff out onto the table and, as of this writing, there are still stacks of boxes yet to be opened. And this is all just stuff that was given to the unit we're replacing. It's amazing that this stuff gets rumaged through by hundreds of people on a daily bases, and there's still all this crap.
Most of these care packages are filled with big baggies full of stuff, evidently intended to each go to an individual Marine. Generally, the bags get opened and sorted: the hand sanitizer in the box full of hand sanitizers, the playing cards with the stacks of playing cards, the toothbrush in the box full of toothbrushes, etc. We used to have a big box full of razors – those cheap plastic single blade razors – collected from weeks of care packages. I think someone finally just threw the whole box away.
The other day I was looking through one box of goodie bags that I was thinking was particularly obnoxious. In each bag a copy of Reader's Digest, some crappy candy, some handy-wipes, other worthless trinkets. Then I caught a glimpse of the handcrafted card placed in each bag. "Young Women's Camp, Summer 2008. Portland Oregon Stake. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." I thought about writing back to the stake, "Thank you so much for your thoughtful care package. We threw most of it away."
You know, you probably should. Somebody needs to let them know that what they are sending just isn't needed. Then again, they might be by soldiers out in the field.
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