“I’ve got 75 boxes packed this year, and haven’t found a home for them yet,” says Connie Peacock, Rear Commodore of the Coronado Cays Yacht Club, about the Gratitude Boxes she facilitated putting together for the military. With the care packages ready to go, she’s searching for a cost-effective way to get them into the hands of deployed service members.
Peacock grew up in a military family. Her father spent 35 years in the Navy, and both of her brothers served as well. While living in Orange County, she joined a ski club that was planning some community outreach projects.
“Twenty-five years ago, with my ski club in Orange County, I started Project Gratitude. We had a great response. The first time, we had 30 boxes. The next year, we packed almost 40. Within several years, we had at least 50 boxes every year.”
Gratitude Boxes
The idea for gratitude boxes came about when Peacock’s nephew was in the Air Force. “He was stationed in Afghanistan, and I wanted to send his squadron the boxes. So that’s what we did.” Her military family continued to expand. “My daughter got married, and her husband was in the Navy on a sub, and I thought, let’s see if we can connect the boxes with the sub. We did so in Guam.”
When Peacock moved to San Diego three years ago, she traded in her skis for a boat. She joined the Coronado Cays Yacht Club and got involved with club activities. Even before she was on the club’s board, she brought the idea of gratitude boxes to them. “I said, ‘Can we try it?’ We live in a military community, and I wanted to continue the effort.”
Inside the box
The process of filling the boxes has been streamlined over the years. Volunteers and donors are encouraged to visit the dollar store or bulk purchase items such as razors, tissues, hand sanitizer, oral hygiene products, socks, playing cards, etc. Peacock then assembles the boxes, and lays them out on long tables, where volunteers move along the line and drop one of each item into a box. The most important requirement for the items is that they be non-perishable, as they never know how quickly they will be received.
The shipping challenge
Peacock admits that the biggest hurdle for the Gratitude Boxes is cost. “Not only do we have to ask for donations to fill the boxes, but also for monetary donations to be able to send them.” To offset shipping expenses, she has prioritized building connections with other military families.
“When I lived up in Orange County, it was easy to find someone in Los Alamitos who knew when ships would come in to the port. When I came here, I thought, ‘Well, we’ve got ships coming and going all the time. Why are we spending all this money?'”
Last year, Peacock was able to deliver the boxes on an outgoing vessel, but not this year. They thought the boxes were going out on the USS Boxer, but it didn’t work out. Now there are 75 filled boxes and no cost-effective way to deliver them.
“I have some feelers out,” she said. “We have Navy veterans and active-duty service members at the Coronado Cays Yacht Club. We’re going to do this without spending money to ship them, since shipping is so expensive. It’s usually $2,000 to $3,000, and there are so many boxes this year.”
If you have a connection to help find a home for the boxes, please email: [email protected].
While the boxes are waiting to find their destination, Peacock is proud of the work this year to fill 75 boxes. People continue to offer to bring donations, but the boxes are all closed, sealed, and ready to go.
Peacock says not much has changed in terms of putting together the boxes, but each year is a unique experience. “Every year surprises me. I haven’t been in Coronado that long, and the Yacht Club participation level exceeded my expectations, especially this year. We have lots of events where I can advertise to club members what we’re doing, plus regular email blasts and a monthly newsletter. I put it out there that last year we filled 51 boxes, which was our first year at the club. I said I wanted 75 this year, and people showed up. It’s really encouraging that the non-military part of our community is so supportive of the military presence.”
Over the years, recipients of the boxes have reached out to Peacock with gratitude. So this year she put contact information in every single box, facilitating the thank yous and pictures that the troops like to send. “The yacht club is doing its best to do more community activities, and this is just another way to give back.”
Coronado Cays Yacht Club
Being part of the Coronado Cays Yacht Club has been a great experience for Peacock, and she’s vocal about how people can benefit from membership. She shares, “We have a military membership designation to encourage young families to join and be part of the community, even if they’re only here for a short time. We don’t charge an initiation fee for them. They don’t have a monthly minimum for food and beverage, and the dues are minimal at $105 a month. It’s such a great service to the community.” She points out benefits CCYC offers, such as access to the pool for family swim.
Big Brothers and Big Sisters
Another example of CCYC giving back is their sponsorship of a boating afternoon for Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Diego. Last month, kids came with their big brother or big sister and the guests were taken out on boats for a couple hours in the morning. They went under the bridge and by the Midway, then came back to the club and had a cookout and got to swim in the pool — video on Facebook.
Concluding our interview, Peacock emphasized that while she brought the Gratitude Box idea to Coronado, it’s really the Coronado Cays Yacht Club that does so much work for the community.
Coronado Cays Yacht Club is hosting an Open House on Wednesday, August 19, from 5 to 9 p.m. “We’re opening the club to the community to enjoy a drink at the bar and get some dinner. We have sail races on Wednesday nights, which are fun to watch.”
