TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Postage Needed To Deploy Care Packages For Troops

ADVERTISEMENT

By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 7, 2008

TAMPA - Bob Williams of Wesley Chapel wants American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to get the goodies he is sending. He has boxes and boxes of donated items, including socks and coffee, underwear and cookies all ready and packed. He just lacks the cash to pay the post office.

"We have tripled the amount of donations we've had," he said Friday. That includes food from Sweetbay supermarkets, Keebler cookies, coffee from Starbucks and warm clothes. He has scores of volunteers who have packed all those things in boxes and there they sit.

"We have a tremendous amount of donations," he said, "but the postage money has dried up. Right now, I'm looking at a $30,000 deficit. I've got stuff piled up all over the place, all the boxes are done and ready to ship. I just don't have the money to ship them."

It costs $37.77 to ship one box, he said.

Williams runs OurTroopsOnline and has built a network by which troops overseas can request items or just get goodies unsolicited.

He said the Web site gets about 150 e-mails a week from overseas troops seeking goodies from home or just thanking them for boxes they have received. A typical box contains coffee, coffee pots and DVD players. Many contain notes from area children. Troops in Afghanistan, he said, are in need of warm clothing.

"They are in 18-degree weather and they are living in caves," he said. "They aren't getting thermal underwear from the government.

"These are our guys we sent over there," he said.

Getting a box from home around the holidays is especially important, he said.

"It's such a morale booster to get packages on Christmas Eve," he said.

Anyone who wants to help pay the cost of mailing the packages can send a check, payable to Postmaster, to P.O. Box 7560, Wesley Chapel FL 33545 or call (813) 991-9400. Williams also can be reached by email at sift@aol.com.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT