Pupils Tuck Small Reminders of Home in Marines’ Aid Packs

Dear Mr. or Mrs. Marine,

The children at Garden Park Elementary in Garden Grove appreciate you very much.

They also hope notes like that, enclosed in gift-stuffed plastic bags, will have the power to comfort dispirited soldiers.

Letters from all 230 Garden Park students are starting to make their way this week to Marines stationed in Kuwait. The children are helping Operation Interdependence, a volunteer effort based in the San Diego County community of Fallbrook, send aid packages to military personnel stationed overseas.

A retired Marine created the program when the Department of Defense suspended similar campaigns shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when anthrax scares required the screening of every package.

The students’ letters are being packed into transparent quart-size bags, along with items such as playing cards, postage stamps and packets of fast-food hot sauce.

Although the children’s grasp of military concepts is understandably vague, they all seemed to understand that soldiers have a duty to protect their country.

“If we had no soldiers, we would probably have an unfree world,” wrote second-grader Makenna Roa, who bordered her letter with purple hearts and butterflies. “You’re the best.”

Thoughts like those are what keep soldiers motivated, said program creator Albert Renteria, president of the Navy League’s Tri-City Council in San Diego County, who retired as a chief warrant officer after serving in the Marines for 26 years.

“When you’re in the service and in harm’s way, it crosses your mind, ‘What am I doing here?’ ” the Fallbrook resident said. “Getting a note from home, especially from an innocent child, puts you back in focus with why you’re there.”

Schools, hotels and women’s groups in 36 states are among those who have participated since Renteria launched the program a year ago. Now, about a dozen 30-pound boxes containing a bag for each of the 30 to 50 soldiers in a platoon are mailed to troops around the world each month after they are inspected at Camp Pendleton.

The threat of war with Iraq has increased interest in the program, but Renteria said soldiers posted abroad are in constant need of such encouragement.

“This is not a program built around 9/11 or the possibility of war,” he said. “We should always care when we have a service member away from home.”

Renteria set up the Web site www.oidelivers.com to help promote Operation Interdependence. It was a Garden Grove Republican women’s group that suggested a school effort to Garden Park’s principal. On Thursday, the children gathered in an auditorium to assemble the bags at a table laden with candy, a stuffed lion, shoelaces, a bottle of Tabasco sauce, and a hotel’s worth of tiny toiletries, including scented shower gel.

A few dozen Garden Park students read their letters aloud. Besides making their admiration clear, they wrote about themselves -- “My favorite animal is the anaconda,” wrote second-grader Ryan Kawahara -- and tried to update the soldiers on current events.

“In case you’re into sports, the Buccaneers whipped the Raiders in the Super Bowl, 48-21!” sixth-grader Harrison Homa wrote.

Harrison brought toothbrushes and toothpaste for his packages, “So the soldiers could have dental hygiene,” he said. Smiling impishly, the 11-year-old added, “And then they’re going to ruin it with all the candy we gave them.”

Eight-year-old Christopher Sebo brought plastic bandages and playing cards. The second-grader said he hopes the gifts will comfort the soldiers while they are away from their families.

“A Marine,” Christopher wrote in his letter, “needs to be taken care of, too.”