Misawa Family Support Center flooded
with weekly assortment of coupons
By Wayne Specht, Misawa
bureau chief
Wayne Specht / Stars and Stripes
Nastasha Johnson clutches a handful of vendor coupons that arrive in the mail by the
thousands weekly at the Family Support Center, Misawa Air Base, Japan. |
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — No one knows why boxes and letters
brimming with thousands of vendors coupons show up in the Family Support Center’s
mailbox here every week.
All Natasha Johnson knows for sure is on any given day, more than
9,000 neatly clipped coupons for pet foods, baby diapers and household cleaners fill
several boxes at the base Airman’s Attic.
Clipped from magazines and newspapers, they’re good for just
about anything else found on commissary store shelves.
Some come in by the boxful. Others arrive in hand-addressed
envelopes, carrying postmarks from places in Minnesota, Maine, Pennsylvania and Nevada.
Johnson, a Family Support Center coordinator, says no one knows why
veterans groups, American Legion Woman’s Auxiliaries and private citizens send them
here. She spends a good portion of her time sorting them into plastic sandwich bags either
by product category, or by expiration date.
“Baby diapers and pet items are the most popular ones people
here look for,” Johnson said, “about 80 percent of them are for items that can
be purchased in the commissary.”
One envelope that arrives regularly originates from the Lititz Senior
Center in the Pennsylvania community of the same name.
“Probably a lot of retired folks there spend their time cutting
them out,” Johnson said.
Others arrive twice monthly with a return address at Nellis Air Force
Base, Nev.
For some younger military families on tight budgets, the coupons are
a godsend.
“They really go a long way,” Johnson said. “People
that come in here say they save between $100 and $200 monthly … that goes a long way
for some military families.”
Some of the letters include comments thanking military folks for
their service so far away from home.
“That’s really impressive to me, and thoughtful, too,”
Johnson added. “It’s nice folks back stateside don’t forget about us tucked
away here at Misawa.”
Folks can take as many coupons as they wish, but Johnson urges them
to share them with friends.
The coupons are available to all base residents, said Capt. Barbara
Severson-Olson, director of the Family Support Center.
“We want to get the word out that we have them so military and
civilians of all branches of the services can come in and pick some up,” she said.
Johnson is taking advantage of the coupon craze herself.
She used to ask her mother back in North Carolina to send her coupons
to use over here.
“I told her to stop sending them,” Johnson said. “I
get to pick through all the coupons that come to Misawa instead.”
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