Family Care Packages Are Parcels of Joy for Students

The Order of the Bell Tower, a student service organization, provides an easy and convenient way for parents to send care packages to their children.

Tanea Pettis, the order's adviser, said that the care package service is one of the biggest fund-raisers of the year for the organization and that this year almost 600 packages were sold.

The service has been in place since 1980. The care packages are ordered from another company, which then puts them together and ships them to UNC.

"The parents always like to have an avenue to send something, and it's easy," Pettis said.

Jessica Davis, the order's co-chairwoman, said that letters from the organization are sent to parents in October and that parents can choose from three different kinds of packages.

The care packages could contain apples, oranges, popcorn, granola bars, snack mix or candy depending on which of the three packages is ordered.

Junior communication studies major Christopher Baker, who has received an exam package the past two years, said he looks forward to the snacks sent to him during exams and that he receives care packages through the order.

Baker said he found a lot of the food, such as fruit snacks and snack mix, to be very good in spite of the fact that he never had heard of the name brand.

Many parents put care packages together on their own and send them by mail.

"I'm from California. I think only faraway people get (care packages)," said sophomore Mariam Missaghi, who works at the care package distribution center at the Alumni Center. Missaghi said she has received a few care packages from her mother back home.

Davis said a lot of the parents who order the packages make it a surprise.

"I was very surprised and happy," Baker said.

"It just showed (my mother) cared. It was a stressful time for me."

Students said that receiving care packages in the mail is one way to break the pressures of studying and exams.

"It's getting to the point where everyone's getting tired," said Patty Robbins, a sophomore psychology and political science major who also works at the distribution center.

The care packages are accompanied by a note from the sender.

"It's usually a surprise, and some of them have a note from parents," Missaghi said. "The notes are really cute."

Robbins said that most of the notes that come with the care packages wish students luck on exams but that some students who haven't seen their parents since school started found their notes to be a little more special.

Robbins said one girl was very excited to receive a note from her mother, who has been in Europe and has not seen her daughter for a while.

The Order of the Bell Tower provides care package orders twice a year, once during winter exams and then again in the spring.

Welcome packages for incoming freshmen also are available and are delivered directly to students' rooms at the start of school to welcome them to campus.

Winter exam care packages were available to be picked up by students this week in the Alumni Center.

Other organizations and groups on campus, such as the Baptist Student Union as well as Granville Towers, provide the same service, but the order is the primary group that provides this service for the entire student body.

But no matter where the care packages are from, students said, a box full of food and other goodies always is appreciated, especially around exam time.

"I think everyone likes to get mail," Davis said.

"It's food. It's free for me."

The Features Editor can be reached at features@unc.edu.