Less is more is the message from Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The hospital has received so many gifts for wounded soldiers and their families that it has run out of space.
The hospital announced yesterday that it would not begin accepting new donations until February, at the earliest. "I bet we have at least 10 tons of goods," said Michael Wagner, director of the Medical Family Assistance Center. "It's kind of a pleasant problem."
Packages fill the Medical Family Assistance Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
(Staff Sgt. Joseph Lee -- Walter Reed Army Medical Center)
|
|
A 40-by-60-foot storage room is nearly stacked up to its 12-foot ceiling with stuffed animals, clothes, shaving kits, books, videos, CDs and DVDs. Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops have sent photographs of themselves along with boxes with goodies. Schoolchildren have sent stacks of handmade cards.
The goods are desperately needed and appreciated by the soldiers and their families, who sometimes arrive at the hospital in Northwest Washington late at night without more than a few pieces of clothing. They could end up staying at the hospital for months while the soldier recovers, Wagner said.
Walter Reed receives patients daily who have been injured in Iraq or Afghanistan. Since the Iraq invasion, the hospital has treated 3,735 patients, 955 of whom have been battle casualties. The length of stay can range from several days to a year.
Last week, the hospital staff provided the soldiers with stacks of cards and other items of kindness from strangers. The soldiers were visibly moved when they read them, Wagner said.
Gifts for wounded soldiers have been arriving since the onset of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but this was the first time the hospital ran out of storage room.
Gifts also have been arriving at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, which treats Marines and Navy patients from Iraq and Afghanistan. The medical center is still accepting gifts, said Lt. Cmdr. William Anderson, a spokesman. It has received backpacks, photo albums and videos about sea life as donors try to find kinship with a seaman.
"It's an outpouring of support and gratitude for their sacrifice," Anderson said.
Although several organizations and corporations have made donations, it is the items from individuals that sometimes leave the biggest impression.
Wagner recalled a man in Kentucky who sent his half-used telephone calling card to Walter Reed, along with a handwritten note. The man could not afford a new phone card but said he wanted to send whatever he could to the soldiers "who were fighting for his freedom," Wagner said.
Until space becomes available at Walter Reed, officials encouraged those still wanting to help to donate money to organizations that help soldiers' families with living expenses, transportation, meals and other needs during their stays in the Washington region.
The public can contact the hospital to reach a branch of the American Red Cross, the Helping Hand Chaplains' Fund, the Walter Reed Society and the Fisher Houses at Walter Reed. Other information is available on a Department of Defense Web site, www.defendamerica.mil, and on a site affiliated with the department, www.americasupportsyou.mil.
