Groups rush to meet Dec. 4 gift deadline for troops overseas

COLUMBUS (AP) — In making your list this season, here is something to add: Don’t forget Dec. 4.

The Postal Service says mail sent to U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan should be sent by that date to assure arrival by Christmas.

“If it gets there after Christmas, it’ll still be well-appreciated, but it would be nice if you could get it there beforehand,” said Roger Bock, president of the Marine Corps Family Support Community.

Bock, a retired Marine and Vietnam veteran, and his Westerville-based group are busy preparing packages to send overseas to troops who won’t get to celebrate the holidays with their families back home.

“Everybody wants to do something at Christmastime because it makes them feel good, but you’ve got to remember that these [soldiers] are there year-round,” said Bock, whose organization sends about 1,000 packages throughout the year.

Operation Buckeye, a program launched in 2006 by Jim Caronis of Worthington, mailed 400 boxes this week to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and intends to ship an additional 800 or more in time for Christmas.

“The soldiers treasure them,” Caronis said. “The one underlying theme in the letters we’ve gotten back from soldiers is: You don’t know how much it means to receive a box from a total stranger.”

Businesses are in the giving act, too. Pam’s Market Popcorn, for example, is giving 3.5-gallon tins of popcorn to military families so they can send them to loved ones in the service.

“I have respect for anybody in uniform who is willing to pay the ultimate price,” said Pam Tylka, the proprietor of Pam’s Market Popcorn, which periodically has been sending popcorn to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2005.

Kelley Granzow of Reynoldsburg sends about 500 packages to overseas troops throughout the year, and she intends to mail up to 60 in the coming weeks, as well as 700 Christmas cards.

“Don’t stress if you miss the deadline,” said Granzow, who has sent packages since 2003. “These soldiers don’t care if they get the package or card before Christmas. They’re just appreciative of getting mail and for people stateside to be thinking of them.”

Granzow’s co-workers at US Airways, where she works in baggage service at Port Columbus, raised $1,100 through an October fundraiser to help her pay for postage.

Fundraisers and donations also help Operation Buckeye — which has spent about $120,000 on mailing more than 12,100 packages since 2005 — and the Marine Corps Family Support Community offset postal charges.

“Virtually most of our money spent goes to postage,” said Bock, whose group spent close to $10,000 this year on that cost. “We’re blessed with a lot of support. If we did not have donations coming in, we wouldn’t be able to ship them.”

The Postal Service charges $11.95 for a priority-mail, large, flat-rate box sent to military addresses overseas.

“I push people to send letters and Christmas cards,” Granzow said. “It doesn’t have to be a package. Just show them that you’re thinking of them. We’re so into technology, we’ve forgotten the old- fashioned mail.”

Caronis was at a post office recently when a stranger saw he was mailing packages to soldiers for Operation Buckeye. The stranger gave $20 to help pay for postage.

“I said, ‘You just sent two boxes to soldiers,’” Caronis said.