CMTS WORKING GROUP CONSTRUCTS HOLIDAY GIFT BOXES FOR SEAMEN

December 12, 2008.  Washington, DC.  Staff from member agencies of the US Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) took time from their busy schedules to fill and wrap “care packages” for seamen visiting the Port of Baltimore during the holidays.  Ms. Pat Mutschler, CMTS Executive Secretariat staff member from the US Army Corps of Engineers, worked with the Apostleship of the Sea mission in Baltimore to arrange the donation.

Seafarers spend months at a time at sea.  Providing the containers was intended to help ease the separation from their families this demanding work requires. Included in the care packages were writing materials, personal hygiene items, gloves, playing cards and sweet treats donated by members from the CMTS staff office, the US Coast Guard, the US Maritime Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Agriculture, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and the Environmental Protection Agency. 

“The interagency Working Group has worked so closely together these past two years on federal  policies and practices to improve the marine transportation system (MTS) that everyone embraced the idea of doing something of direct benefit to mariners,” Ms. Mutschler stated.

In assembly line fashion the enthusiastic group signed a card for each mariner, inserted items and wrapped each box.  The mission was also provided with enough money to buy each mariner a pre-paid phone card.  Pat Mutschler then delivered the twenty boxes to the seamen’s mission the next day.

John Bobb, Chief of the Oceans and Transportation Branch at the US Coast Guard and Working Group member, provided first-hand recommendations to the effort. ”As a past merchant mariner, I understood the difficulty of being on a ship, far away from family over the holidays.  A box full of basic items means so much, especially during these times when mariners are often restricted to the ship for security reasons.”

For more information on activities of the CMTS, go to www.cmts.gov or contact Helen A. Brohl, Director of the Executive Secretariat, 202-366-3612.

(L) Interagency staff donated items for mariners visiting the Port of Baltimore over the holidays then gathered together to fill and wrap the boxes.

(R) Pat Mutschler organized the CMTS project and delivered the boxes to the Apostleship of the Sea mission in Baltimore.