Navy Holiday Gift Project

Hello,

My name is Maria Snyder. I live in Bel Air, MD and I am working with a wonderful group of ladies from all over MD that has "adopted" 2 naval ships. This year we will be sending holiday cheer to the sailors and marines aboard The USS Truman (CVN75) and the USS Boxer (LHD4) There are over 8000 men & women we are working hard to send holiday gift bags to.We are inviting the community to participate with us. Iit would go a long way in assisting us in reaching or even exceeding our goal. How amazing would it be if we could adopt a third ship!?

Any support we can get from the community would be greatly appreciated. Whether it's local businesses volunteering to be a collection site and/or donating goods, individual community members making donations or volunteering to come to the McFaul Center in Bel Air on Saturday, October 19th from 10a-3p to help assemble the gift bags, or local community leaders spreading the word and supporting our efforts.

At this time we are still trying to organize some collection locations in Harford & Baltimore Counties. We have created the Navy Mom's Holiday Gift Project page on facebook and will be sending out updates via that page as soon as more information becomes available.
 
Thank you for your time. We do appreciate your consideration.

Respectfully,

Maria Snyder


Below is a list of suggested items for the gift bags. If you can donate anything please just let us know. We will be getting together on Oct. 19th to make the bags. We would need any/all donations before then. THANK YOU!!!

Goodie Bag List

GIFT ITEMS

Items that are/were an issue Large bottles of shampoo, lotion, hand sanitizer (they leaked and soaked into the candy and other items shelled pistachio and sunflower seeds – the shells are a hazard to the jet engines

Items that sailors really loved (these are suggestions, not limitations)

Loofahs – the guys liked them as much as the ladies
Jerky Beef Sticks
Personal size bottles of hand sanitizer (seal inside of snack size Ziplocs)
Personal size packages of hand wipe
Personal size bottles of lotion (seal inside of snack size Ziplocs)
Sugar Free Gum Candy (not chocolate)
Chapstick
Personal size bottles of sunscreen (seal inside of snack size Ziplocs)
Any kind of nuts Cracker Snacks – the small cellophane wrapped type
Hot Cocoa packets
Individual coffee packets
Individual favor packets for water
Writing cards – blank inside
Card games (Uno, Phase 10, etc)

GIFT PACKAGING

Gift packages that came through the best were:

Small cloth or felt Christmas stockings/bags Heavy duty lunch bags (they were wonderfully colored and decorated)
Heavy duty Quart and Gallon size
Ziplocs bags (the gifts were wrapped in Christmas tissue paper inside)

Gift packages that didn’t fare well were:
Large oversized felt Christmas stockings
Christmas Cellophane bags
Light weight lunch bags

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!