Blockbuster shipping out 20,000 DVDs to USO

Employees volunteer to pack boxes for troops

By Ned Randolph -- Video Business, 12/17/2007

DEC. 17 | To help spread some cheer to men and woman in uniform, Blockbuster employees are volunteering to help ship out 20,000 DVDs to United Service Organization centers around the world in time for the holidays.

Employees will volunteer their lunch hours at the Dallas headquarters on Tuesday to help stuff care packages, which also will carry personal notes of encouragement from staff members as well as CEO James Keyes.

Many of the employees are former military personnel, National Guardsmen and reservists.

"In fact, the gentleman coordinating it all is a former U.S. Marine," said Larcine Bland, a Blockbuster representative helping with the effort.

Blockbuster has a standing policy of fulfilling requests for movies and games made by commanding officers, and each holiday season, the company makes a big push. But Bland said she didn't recall a shipment of movies as large as this one, which will go out at Blockbuster's expensive to 36 USO centers, including 15 overseas.

"This is the first year we've had a packing party," she said. "We've been shipping them out all week. In an effort to ensure we get them there as close to the holidays as we can, we've asked for volunteers to help us."

She added, "We had a great response from employees that wanted to come and help."

Each shipment includes an assortment of genres: comedies and dramas, new releases including Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and The Bourne Ultimatum, as well as such holiday classics as It's a Wonderful Life.

Some packages are hitting close to home.

"One of our employees, her husband is deployed to Iraq currently," Bland said. "We're doing a special box for his platoon that we're sending. A real nice collection of DVDs and personal notes from her friends and colleagues."