Last year, while I was deployed, an organization of volunteers from anysoldier.com helped me and my Soldiers tremendously through sending us hundreds of care packages. They even had a thread about what to send us on their forum site. I will try to turn some of these into blog posts so others can benefit from some of the information I put out to them. The group at anysoldier.com is a wonderful group to work with if you are looking to support our Soldiers downrange.
One of the questions asked;
“…Just wondering if there is a need for books.”Â
Books. Books are tricky. You either have them everywhere or you have none.
To be honest books are very hard to distribute. I am currently trying to help the FOB library get on its feet, but until that time the books just pile up. And I hate for stuff to go to waste.
That is one thing I learned from my last deployment–“Beware of books and Bibles.” They both pile up.
Magazines are different. They have current information, which we love to read and, to some extent, they are disposable. People have no problem throwing them away after they have made the rounds, so they don’t become outdated and pile up. It is also understood that they are typically left-overs, meaning they have already been read by the subscriber. So magazines are a favorite to receive in care packages. Think about what you read–if you like it, somebody here will too so throw them into a box. Again, it is ok that they are left over–we don’t care, we just want to read them and pass them around so we can talk about them.
Comic Books. Well, they are a personal pursuit of mine. When I see a box of comics–my day has been brightened.Â
To be honest, I take what I find interesting and pass out the others to other avid comic book readers and this builds bridges between them and me. Then we put them out for others to grab–many times identifying those that like comic books and getting them on the good stuff when it comes in.
One idea, I saw recently was including a comic book with the individual care packages. The Soldiers really appreciated this. Some were happy to come into my office and drop them off.
I hope I was able to shed some light on the literature situation out here. I hope this also help in supporting other locations less fortunate as mine.
Thank you very much for all of the support that you provide for us.