MOTS Packing Party For Local Troops

Packing for the Troops is an experience you will not forget!  My only warning: Don't be late or you will miss out.

One day a month I have the privilege of inviting anyone and everyone from our community to come together. In a warehouse at Lakewood Business Park in Bradenton they gather to pack a box of love for a local deployed Troop.Each month they show up at the door earlier and earlier.  What started as a 10:00 am event has quickly crept back to 9:00am.They are usually eager, sometimes solemn, but all are happy to be there and happy to see friends and neighbors there too.It takes 45 minutes.Only 45 minutes for them to choose a box with a soldier or Marine's name on it, walk up and down the aisles picking out trail mix, white socks,batteries and toothpaste to pack a box for a Troop.It very much resembles a beehive, with each worker bee intent on their mission, weaving in and out of other worker bees, picking over this, pausing over that, grabbing two of these, tucking it all like treasure into their box.Sometimes mothers of the deployed come. Sometimes they cry a little, but they are happy that we are all there.And in 45 minutes, a warehouse full of food and goodies laid out like a make-shift grocery store is stripped clean.And in it's place stands a mountain of packed, taped and neatly piled boxes. A pile of boxes that will travel miles and miles.For what? A few snacks, a bar of soap, a pair of socks?No. It is much more than that,It is a sign, a signal, a salute.It is a box of love to let them know that they are not forgotten. 

Linda Craig Director, Manasota Operation Troop Support