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July 28, 2025 12 mins

Amy Payton shares the mission of Packages for Warriors, a nonprofit offering free shipping of medium flat-rate care packages to deployed service members through their partnership with Box and Ship in Junction City. Started as a grassroots effort after 9/11 and eventually becoming a nonprofit in 2006, the organization helps civilians support military personnel with comfort items from home.

• Service available to anyone sending packages to military members with APO/FPO addresses, regardless of branch
• Operates with zero payroll staff, functioning entirely through volunteers
• Featured on Trace Atkins' "Great American Heroes" TV show in 2012
• Each package costs approximately $20 to ship; every $1,000 donated funds 50 packages
• Participates in Combined Federal Campaign and local community foundations like the Armed Forces Community Foundation
• Hosting upcoming Pumpkin and Spice Holiday Bazaar fundraiser on October 24-25 in Salina
• To date, they have never had to turn anyone away from their services

Contact Packages for Warriors at 844-785-4404 or info@packagesforwarriors.org. Learn more at packagesforwarriors.org.


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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater
Manhattan Community Foundation.
In this episode we feature arecently broadcast segment of
the GMCF Community Hour as heardon NewsRadio KMAN.
We are back.
This is the GMCF Community Houron NewsRadio KMAN.
We have an organization and Iknow Amy.

(00:20):
You were here about a year ago.
I don't have the exact calendardate, but it's nice to have you
back.
Amy Payton is her name and sheis here on behalf of Packages
for Warriors.
I think I have an idea just inthe title, which means you did a
really good job of picking outa name for your organization.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
But for those of us that may not necessarily connect
all those dots, tell us whatyou do.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
So what we do is that we do fundraising and then turn
around.
Basically, in a nutshell, werecirculate the funds back to
the communities that we raisethe funds in, and so, in essence
, what we do is that we offerthe community the ability to
ship their own median flat ratepackage free of charge at Box
and Ship here in Junction City.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Okay, so how many people do you work with and how
many of these packages do youget sent out?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, it goes in waves.
Of course, you know the serviceis open to anyone, whether it's
a military family or grandpaand grandma, a friend that might
be deployed, and it's just notexclusive to Army.
It's open to anyone in thepublic that has a family member
deployed, regardless what branch.
The key is that it must be anAPO or FPO address, and so how

(01:43):
it works is that anyone can goto the regular post office and
pick up a medium flat rate box.
We are a partnership with a boxand ship, and so that is our
location for the free mediumflat rate shipping.
And how it works is that you putyour own product in that is
permissible with the UnitedStates Postal Service guidelines
.
We do encourage everyone to goto our site and look at the

(02:05):
restrictions, or you can godirectly to the United States
Postal Service to see what'sprohibited restrictions.
But basically you just put yourcontents in there, you assist
by providing the sender's nameand address and also the
recipient, and again, it has tobe an APO or FPO address.
How'd this get started?
Well, 9-11.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Really.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
At the time I worked.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
You know that's been 20, what 24 years now.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yes, sir.
Goodness 9-11 happened and atthe time I was a histologist in
Salina Histologist.
Yes, sir, I basically receivedhuman tissue samples and we
would prepare preparemicroscopic slides for the
pathologist to be able todiagnose for any abnormalities.
But what I realized when 9-11happened was that I knew I

(02:56):
didn't have any immediate familymembers in the service at the
time time, and what I noticedwas that many of my coworkers
they were wanting to supportmilitary and their families but
just didn't quite know how, ifthat makes any sense.
Being a civilian, we want tosupport the military, but
sometimes you just don't knowhow to go about it.

(03:17):
And so what we did was we juststarted out small, as any other
nonprofit does.
It was prematurely.
Back in 2006 is when the ballstarted kind of rolling, and so,
in essence, we just startedwith people we knew it just
started through word of mouth.
We started with anybody thathad a family member deployed.

(03:38):
We just assembled simple thingssuch as sundries like snacks,
cookies, simple little thingsLittle treats, treats.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
They don't have those over there, do they?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
In some areas, no, especially if it's not
established just yet.
But that's how it got started.
And then I got overwhelmed witha request and need some help.
And I went to AMBEX meeting,which is in Salina, American
Businessmen, and they all cametogether and they say we want to

(04:11):
see this go non-profit.
You know, we just we want tosee this go farther than just a
project, you know.
And so here we are today.
Participants of the CombinedFederal Campaign have been for
many years now, which entailsreapplying each year.
So just because you submit yourapplication, it's not a one and
done, it's every year.

(04:31):
And then we also areparticipants in local community
foundations, such as the ArmedForces Community Foundation.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Okay, well, we talked about that off mic before the
program started, about thefoundations that you are
involved in here at GMCF GaryCounty.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
And you also talked about Armed Forces Community
Foundation, because they'rematch day and we're going to put
a plug in for that.
That's always on Veterans Day,november 11.
And how does that help you?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh, it's an excellent opportunity actually, because
that's where we really encourageany sponsors or individuals
that want to contribute to helpcover the cost of these care
packages, individuals that wantto contribute to help cover the
cost of these care packages.
That's where we get more bangfor our buck per se because of
the match.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
They match funds, and so that's really an excellent
opportunity for all non-profitsto really gain yeah, yeah, well,
um, that is something thatwe're proud to be a part of here
and have originated some ofthat and seeing how that's also
impacted other organizations and, you know, with the Armed
Forces Foundation, you know, andit's not just Fort Riley.

(05:41):
Right, you know it covers allthe bases here, you know,
including Guard and all kinds ofother things Absolutely so they
do a lot of great thingsstatewide and we're proud to be
able to host that here inManhattan at the GMCF offices
with Christine Binney.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
So I bet you know her .
I do.
She's a great person.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, yeah, whatever.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
You are too.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
She's a dear friend.
She is.
She is absolutely a dear friend, one of my favorites.
Now I understand you've gottensome really good publicity over
the years for the work thatyou're doing.
Tell us about that.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
We did some really good publicity over the years
for the work that you're doing.
Tell us about that.
We did, like I said, it's beena work in progress.
It's a continuous effort intrying to inform the public
because we are a very smallnonprofit.
To kind of give you a littlebit of background, I've never
had any payroll staff.
We have zero payroll, includingmyself.
I don't earn a penny from thiseffort.
We continuously try to get theword out, but it takes many for

(06:39):
it to happen.
It does take many to make ithappen, but we did get some
national attention in 2012.
I was Trace Atkins' first heroon his TV show called Great
American Heroes.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
How about that?

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yes, one of my biggest singers.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Has he got the voice, or what?

Speaker 2 (06:57):
He's an amazing person.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, and he does a lot of good things, especially
for folks in the military.
I don't know what his militarybackground is, but he definitely
has a heart.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
He does, he's done many USO tours.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, and have you ever seen him in concert?

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yes, sir, I got to acknowledge that he's a big dude
.
He is, he's very tall.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
He's a big dude.
Well, that's cool, that's cool.
So what do you do you talkedabout?
You know you have no staff,everything's volunteers.
Do you have a number that youhave in mind about how many
people you have that volunteeron this project every year, or
is it just fluctuate because of?

(07:40):
Do you include in thevolunteers the people that that
provide the, the, the, the giftpackages?

Speaker 2 (07:48):
right.
Well, it as far as volunteers.
It fluctuates, you know.
Sometimes it's's one timepeople may be just interested in
just volunteering at one event.
Other opportunities, you know,come up throughout the year and
so it's really at your own pace.
I feel like that we have roomfor anyone of any age per se, to

(08:10):
include schools, you know thatwant to create cards without no
identity of the student, ofcourse, but it's something for
everyone to get involved.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Do you have a signature event that you do to
help raise money for the purpose?

Speaker 2 (08:24):
We do.
We do have one that's coming upin the fall.
It's going to be called thePumpkin and Spice Holiday Bazaar
.
That's going to take placeOctober 24th and 25th.
It is in Salina, but we'relooking for vendors right now.
The event again is not untilOctober 24th or 25th, but we're
looking for some craft vendorsor even direct sales or

(08:44):
commercial vendors.
We're looking for those type ofbooths.
There are 10 by 10 spaces for$50 per booth space and of
course, all those proceeds gotowards once again shipping the
medium flat rate care packages.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
So the proceeds for the booth sales is what you make
your money on.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
We do On the vendor spaces.
The venue is not donated so wedo have that cost.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
That's some expense.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
But where we do after the expenses are paid to host
the event itself, we do entry bydonation and that's where we
get a lot of our proceeds.
It's because entry by donation-Is this your first one?
It is not.
I've hosted it.
Actually, this will be my fifthevent.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Fifth event Boy, do we need to keep caught up?

Speaker 2 (09:29):
I know Wow.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Did we talk about this last year, and I just
forgot.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
I've done a couple of different ones named the
Springtime Bash and thenWintering Craft and Antique
Bazaar, but no, this is going tobe our second one for the
pumpkin and spice.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Where in Salina do you have it?

Speaker 2 (09:46):
We have it at the 4-H building at 900 Greeley Avenue
and that's in Slina.
For those that are familiarwith the Slina area, it's by the
Tony's Event Center.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Used to be the.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Bicentennial Center.
I was just there last week.
Yes, Did an event there lastweek.
But yeah, we would appreciate.
You know any volunteers,anybody that's interested in
having a vendor booth with me.
You know, just follow up.
We do have a phone number thatyou can call.
It's 844-785-4404.

(10:18):
Or you can just simply email usand it's really simple Info at
packagesforwarriorsorg.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
And that's the website packagesforwarriorsorg.
We've's the websitepackagesforwarriorsorg.
We've touched base on a wholelot of things.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yes, yes.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Anything we've left out.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
I think that pretty much sums it up.
Other than you know, we have alot of soldiers that have been
deployed throughout the months,you know, and we can really use
the support, each package, tokind of pay them perspective.
Each median flat rate averagesout $20 per package.
So for if you say $1,000 forevery $1,000 that we receive in
donations, that covers 50 medianflat rate packages and so that

(10:58):
kind of helps pay it inperspective.
It takes a lot of money tocover it and I'm happy to say so
far today we've never had toturn down anyone.
So we'm happy to say, you know,so far today we've never had to
turn down anyone.
So we'd like to keep thatreport.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
That's a nice, that's a nice track record there.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
It is so far, so good .

Speaker 1 (11:15):
All right, amy Payton , always a delight to have you
in.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Thanks for joining us here.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
And once again the website packagesforwarriorsorg,
and a reminder for the matchdays in Gary County.
Don't have the date on that,but we'll get that for you, you
know, when it comes closer.
And also the armed forcescommunity foundation, Phil
Maddox.
Yeah, Thanks for for texting me, you know, Phil.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
I do, I do.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Sorry about that, but I'm putting in a plug for the
armed forces communityfoundation here through the
greater Manhattan CommunityFoundation.
Just always proud to be able tohelp those that serve our
country and it's exciting whenyou've got a lot of people that
do a lot of great things to makethem feel like their lives

(12:01):
matter.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
And their service matters.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Bringing a piece of home.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, there we are.
Amy Payton is our guest when wecome back from the break.
Vern had to take off, so I'mgoing to bring you some
community updates here and talkabout some other things that are
in the works here at theGreater Manhattan Community
Foundation.
This is the GMCF Community Hourevery Monday in the 10 o'clock
time frame here on NewsRadioKMAN.
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