OCEANSIDE: Volunteer keeps Marines supplied with care packages
By By TOM MORROW -- For the North County Times | ∞
Sandee Murphy of the Oceanside Elks Lodge spends nearly 40 hours a week gathering items to send to Marines overseas. (TOM MORROW/for the North County Times) OCEANSIDE ---- Two years ago, Oceanside's Sandee Murphy learned Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan were in need of personal items they couldn't get in remote areas. A friend suggested to her the Elks Lodge might be able to help.
"She told me, 'If you want to join an organization that does good things for the community and our military, you want to be an Elk,' " Murphy said.
Murphy immediately joined Oceanside's Elks Lodge No. 1561 and set out to be a one-woman dynamo, collecting needed items for deployed troops.
While Murphy has a lot of help from various quarters, she mostly works be herself to assemble the 27- to 30-pound boxes filled with items for 50 Marines.
Over the past two years Murphy and the Elks Lodge have shipped hundreds of boxes filled with hard-to-get items for deployed troops stationed in the middle of the desert or mountains.
"It's amazing what our young men and women on deployment need and can't get," she said. "We send them a 1-cubic-foot box filled with 50 baggies" that contain about six or seven items. Those items include things such as safety pins, socks, travel-sized lotion and shampoo, beef jerky, corn nuts, eye drops, lip balm, cookies, candy, playing cards and T-shirts.
Murphy says she packs each box as tight as she can, adding a number of other requested items along the sides for all the Marines to share. Those items are often things such as duct tape, electrical tape, bug spray, fly swatters and sunflower seeds. She said probably one of the most requested items is Top Ramin noodle packages.
"Those things (Top Ramin) are virtually indestructible," she laughed. "If they get crushed, they'll still cook up and taste good ---- at least a bit like home."
Murphy spends most of her week going around asking businesses for donations for the packages. She goes to fast-food restaurants for packets of salsa, hot sauce, catsup and mustard ---- things not readily available to troops stationed in remote areas.
A food bank in Temecula has donated food by the truckload to the Elks' project.
In each box she ships off to the Marines, Murphy encloses a letter of greeting from the Elks Lodge, plus a note with her e-mail address.
"I get e-mails almost every week telling me how much these boxes are appreciated," she said.
A chaplain's assistant at Camp Liberty in Iraq wrote: "We have received many packages from you and just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate your support."
Most Elks Lodge members are veterans of World War II and Korean War, and they feel a special affinity for the troops of today.
"These packages are our door into these young people," Murphy said. "They're going to remember when they received these packages and where they come from.
Maybe some of them will join us when the get back," she added
Murphy said each care box costs around $25, which the Elks Lodge pays for through donations or out of the organization's treasury.
"A lot of our members simply dig into their own pockets to pay for the postage," she said.
All packages go to a Fleet Post Office address, so neither Murphy nor the lodge knows where the Marines are actually located in Iraq or Afghanistan.
For those wanting to help the Elks with their care package project, call Murphy at (760) 805-9630, or e-mail her at sandeem1@cox.net
Contact Tom Morrow at: quotetaker@cox.net.
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John wrote on Mar 28, 2008 1:55 AM:We miss Morrow daily column. As usual great story. Way to go Elks. They quietly support our troops.
Bob wrote on Mar 28, 2008 9:40 AM:Sandee Murphy and the Elks are great supporters of our Military. She also volunteers with the ELKs taking care packages to the VA Hospital in La Jolla to brighten our veterans day also. She is an asset to the ELKs, the community and any other organizations she finds time to work with.
J. Griffin wrote on Mar 28, 2008 10:38 AM:What a wonderful story. It's always great to read something positive.
Thank you.
Punkrocker wrote on Mar 28, 2008 10:55 AM:How embarassing that the "so called" best military in the entire world has to depend on hand outs. Sort of like a poor man without an income. What happened to the old military that took care of itself and had PRIDE? We never took food stamps or any kind of welfare-my service took care of us even in VN war. Gives the connotation now adays that they are a bunch of poor losers, underpaid, and at the bottom of the social barrel. Poor marine babys away from there mommys!
Soozi wrote on Mar 29, 2008 10:22 AM:Way to go Sandee! We need more people like you who actually support our troops and their needs.
We need less like Punkrocker with his chip on his shoulder pity-party attitude (who should try spell check!)
Keep up the good work. I knew the Elks would benefit from a hard working, caring person like yourself.
God Bless you and our troops for all you do.
To Soozi-The Punkrocker wrote on Mar 30, 2008 8:10 PM:Sandee is doing fine, but soozi I don,t take welfare and I get a creepy feeling when I see healthy well paid men with good benefits taking hand outs. Soft-spoiled! If the marines can not take care of there own men what does that tell you? Or does it go over your head-spell check-"we don,t need no spell check"! Go ahead send them gifts I am sure they like the gifts-it gives you something to do with your time..
Punkrocker wrote on Mar 31, 2008 10:00 AM:Back again to clarify-- My own experience in the past there were heavy restrictions. Working classified and in restricted environments gifts could be used as bribes, or a method of obtaining information from a service member, so I am absolutely brainwashed. -------"Currently, Department of Defense (DoD) regulations forbid service members from accepting gifts worth more than $20 from any outside source.
The federal government's code of federal regulations prohibits federal employees from soliciting or accepting any gifts given because of their official position."
Soozi wrote on May 3, 2008 9:59 AM:Hey Punkrocker,
Evidently you are brainwashed because the people Sandee sends items to are hardworking, loyal American Servicemen and women who actually appreciate the time and effort that goes into collecting and sending them items of comfort and care that they do not have access to and may remind them of the love and support they have at home. Maybe they give a child a piece of candy occasionally or some other small remembrance, but I am absolutely positive they are not bribing anyone with the toothpaste, brushes, soap, combs and candy they are receiving. Maybe someone would be enticed to blab to receive the Top Ramen noodles or tongue scrapers she includes in their care packages!!!!! Get on board and show some support to these kids, you have no idea how much they appreciate and need it. They are not hand-outs!
Soozi
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