Deployed Personnel Sought For Ocean City American Legion Program

OCEAN CITY, NJ — The Ocean City American Legion has a program for sending care packages to deployed service personnel, and they are seeking more participants.

The "Coffee Express" program collects, packs and ships "Care Packages" every month to U.S. military men and women serving throughout the world. The shipments contain, among other things, donations by local merchants and businesses.

While the USO assists the post in selecting the recipients, Post 524's Coffee Express Committee, under the direction of Chairman Vince Rea, is seeking additional names and APO Addresses of deployed service personnel who would enjoy receiving a taste of Ocean City.

The "Packages of Care," as Legion members call them, contain snacks, fruit cups, toothpaste, socks, dental floss, candies, crackers, coffee, popcorn, nuts, cough drops and magazines. Coffee is donated from the Ocean City Coffee Company, taffy from Shriver's and popcorn from Johnson's Popcorn.

On the fourth Wednesday of every month, Legion volunteers go shopping, buying bulk lots and make a morning of creating what they hope will be a meaningful gesture to service men and women who receive the packages.

Anyone who has the name and full address of a service man or woman who would like to be
included in the program, is asked to contact Vince Rea at VincentJRea@Gmail.com or call (856) 900-2047.