Geri Willis of Operation Homefront Support said they have decided to place the donation boxes in two locations this year.
The boxes at NMC will be at the Student Center and at the president’s office.
She said a team will post advertisements and labels on the items the deployed servicemembers would like to have from Joeten. The community can then purchase these items and drop them into the donation boxes.
Willis said individuals will also be able to purchase items and drop them off at NMC’s Student Center with LJ Castro or Lawrence Camacho, the Associated Students of NMC president.
As in the past three years, Willis said students will write cards and letters to be included in the care packages.
The group’s biggest challenge is still collection of names and addresses of deployed servicemembers.
Willis is urging families and relatives to submit the names of their family members who have been deployed. The names and addresses will be kept confidential, she added.
The group is also looking at using popular networking sites like Facebook to spread the word about the campaign.
Willis said the donated items will be packaged in boxes at the multi-purpose center on Nov. 26 starting at 9 a.m. The American Red Cross-NMI chapter will pick up the boxes for labeling on the same day.
Willis said among the items that are on the “wish lists” of the servicmembers are canned foods such as Spam, Ox & Pam corned beef, Vienna sausage, Diamond tuna, Sapporo Ichiban soba, noodle soup, crackers, Doni and cookies. Also to be included in the care packages are cards and letters, newspapers and items for personal hygiene items.
Glass or liquids cannot be sent due to potential breakage. Willis said items with religious content are not also included as some of the packages will be sent to Muslim countries.
Operation Home Front Support sends care packages to the men and women from the CNMI who are serving their nation’s armed forces.
The operation was able to send over a thousand care packages to CNMI servicemembers since 2008.
The partners for the 4th annual care package drive are the entire CNMI community, NMC, MCV, Docomo Pacific and the American Red Cross-NMI chapter.
For donations or for more information, email [email protected] or call 989- CNMI (2664).
