Big Bear & San Gorgonio Communities

We need all the help we can get! I just got requests for 800 more Marines who would love a Holiday bos. Remember to check out our web site for flyer and drop locations. www.touchofhomeformilitary.com Thanks for your ongoing support of our deployed Military.

Diane, two questions:

Is the Flat Rate "APO" box different from the regular Flat Rate boxes for domestic mail?

Are you planning to come up to Big Bear to pick up any boxes that might be put together, or do we need to figure out how to get them to Crestline to you?

Sounds like a particularly important effort with the holidays coming, thanks for being involved.

I just wrote to Diane about this question, because the post office in Victorville is out of APO boxes (how incompetent is this?). The clerk did assure me that the large "Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Box" will work fine, but I would like verification from Touch of Home before I pack and deliver.

(Does anybody want to bet that the clerk I spoke to did *not* immediately get on the phone and request a delivery of APO boxes as soon as she got a chance? I bet they've been "out" of them since 1967.)

Oh Maggie, there is a drop off in Big Bear and many other places -- it's on their website.

Cool Lynne, thanks. I'd also like to know about the APO thing for sure - I have a case of the Flat Rate boxes here, but they are not APO.

OK, Diane e-mailed me that the regular flat-rate large boxes are fine, but that they cost a little more to ship than the APO-labeled boxes. That made me mad because it is so unfair, so I actually got on the phone and I actually managed to speak to a real person at the US Postal Service. The postal person told me that shipping would be the same $12 cost to APO addresses if we used the non-APO labeled box. I hope this is the truth.

Hi Big Bear!!! Sorry I just found this thread. I have been so busy I just didn't get around all the blogs here. We will be glad to come to Big Bear to pick up the boxes you leave at the banks OR better yet...HOW BOUT DROPING THE BOXES OFF AT THE 1st. MOUNTAIN BANK IN RUNNING SPRINGS? I go to Running Springs on Thursdays.
We are getting lots of folks telling us Post Office is out of APO Flat Rate Boxes. Just pack in what you have, lightly tape and drop them off. We can change boxes if need be. I have two pallets we got directly from postal supply back east. Too bad local PO didn't order more themselves.
Thanks for the support...we still have the 800 Marines we just picked up. We will see how many boxes we can send them.

Thanks, Lynne and Diane. FYI the Bear City and Moonridge post offices both told me they don't even have Flat Rate APO boxes and BC didn't even sound like they knew what they were.

If anyone does this a lot, or any other kind of shipping, you can go to the USPS website and order cases (12) of any size Flat Rate box for free. The boxes are free and they ship to you for free, can't beat it.

It's obvious that the USPS prefers customers to deal directly with HQ -- agreed that is better than going to a PO -- but they state they need a pretty long turnaround time on delivery of the APO boxes and I couldn't chance missing Diane's deadline. I am going to order home delivery of APO boxes for the future. But, postal employees in two different locations *assured* me that the zip code in the address tells them to charge the APO rate, not whatever printing is on a box, and therefore the plain boxes would be charged the same as the APO boxes for Touch of Home. That should save time re-packing from the plain boxes.

Great meeting you today Lynn. Thanks for the five great boxes for our Deployd Military. You have made five heroes Holiday a little better. That makes YOU a hero too.
Keep the boxes coming folks. WE have a long way to go by deadline. We plan to keep processing boxes until Thanksgiving weekend. That is why to due date for boxes is Nov. 9. Thanks for your love and support of our precious troops. Way to go Big Bear. Anyone going to drop off boxes at 1st Mountain Bank in Running Springs. Let me know if we need to plan a run to Big Bear to pick up completed boxes. Thanks again1 Love and hugs, Diane