Parents Send Care Packages To Sailors Around The World

By Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Susan Hammond, Navy Office of Community Outreach

ARVADA, Colo. (NNS) -- As part of Denver Navy Week, Navy parents from six states gathered at American Legion Post 161 in Arvada May 7 to greet the director of Chief of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness Division and hold a "packing party" for care packages.

Nearly three years ago, Molly Gisi of Portland, Ore., founded Molly's Adopt a Sailor (MAS), an organization that supports deployed U.S. military personnel, sending them letters and care packages.

"With all its giant ships and technology, the Navy's most important asset is its people," said Rear Adm. Herman Shelanski, Director, Chief of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness Division.

He told the group the average age of a typical Sailor is 19 ½, and in the case of a Sailor on the deck of an aircraft carrier, he has the most dangerous job in the world.

He congratulated the mothers and the recruiters for their work in supporting those Sailors.

"Those Sailors have the training and experience to get the job done successfully," said Shelanski.

Gisi said she started Molly's Adopt a Sailor because she learned, when her own son went into the Navy, that one-third of the Sailors on his ship didn't get any mail while on deployment. MAS has grown to more than 5,000 volunteers in 47 states who have packed 12,000 boxes full of socks, snacks and comfort items that are donated.

"We received an email from one of our adopted Sailors who was halfway through his seven-month ship deployment," said Gisi. "He said the letter he got from one of our moms was the first thing he had received from home since he left."

The boxes packed at the packing party in Arvada are destined to go to Navy destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76). Each local MAS group may adopt a specific ship or unit to send their items to, sometimes on a monthly basis.

The Special Hugs Project, also part of Molly's Adopt a Sailor, supports wounded military personnel in combat hospitals with the same kind of care packages sent from home, said Kim Parks of Monteno, Ill. Parks works specifically to send out stuffed animals and other items, each with a special note from someone back home, to those being cared for in deployed medical facilities.

"An Army Chaplain at a Combat Hospital in Afghanistan asked us if we could send some cards and snacks to the wounded in January 2011," said Parks. "Of course, we responded, and the project keeps growing."

All MAS organizers and participants volunteer their time. The organization is an official not-for-profit charity and accepts donations as well as sponsorships to get the packages to the military members.