Sending Packages to Your Cadet — Instructions & Guidelines

Sending Packages to Your Cadet — Instructions & Guidelines

While families often want to show their love by sending packages or allowing their cadet to order products online, an excessive amount of packages can undermine a cadet's success at MMA. Please review the important information below regarding sending packages and mail and allowing cadets to order online.

The most important way you can support your cadet is by showing your love and encouragement through postcards. letters, emails, video chats, and when cadets have their phones, through phone calls. Your encouraging words can have a stronger impact than the joy from any material gift.

Please limit the number and size of packages that your cadet receives at the Academy, including both those sent from family and friends at home and those that he orders for himself.


Why are too many packages a problem?

Company leadership advisors (CLAs) open and inspect every package to ensure they do not include any contraband. When an abundance of packages are sent, CLAs must spend extra time searching these packages, pulling them away from their primary focus of supporting and engaging with cadets. Please help us best support your cadets by limiting the number of packages received by your cadet to no more than one small package every two weeks.  
Below, please see examples of when an overabundance of packages are sent to cadets.


Why is too much food a problem?

Your cadet has everything he needs at MMA to sustain himself. Any food in a cadet's room must be stored in a 9" x 11" x 3" plastic container. Any food that you send your cadet must fit In that container.

Any additional food that does not fit in his lock box will be confiscated. There are no refrigerators or microwaves in the barracks. 

  • Sending too much food may cause the following issues:
  • Increase in discarded or partially wrapped food items in the barracks, potentially attracting bugs and rodents.
  • Arguments and conflict among cadets over food items.
  • Reports and allegations of cadets stealing food from each other.
  • Cadets trying to skip meals since they have food stored in their rooms.
  • Use of food items to barter for contraband or personal favors.
  • Lack of storage space in cadet rooms with food stored inappropriately everywhere in the rooms.
  • Temptation for cadets to try to sell food to other cadets for cash, which could then be used to attempt to buy contraband.
  • Interference with our efforts to teach cadets about living a healthy lifestyle and enjoying treats in moderation.

Some parents may not be aware of the amount of food and other items their cadets are ordering. Please monitor your cadet's online purchases. Below, see recent packages received.

 


Please Limit Cadet Packages

Please limit packages to one small package every two weeks. We encourage y­­ou to send le­­­tters and postcards as often as you want, but ask that you limit how often you send packages and how often cadets order packages for themselves.



Thinking of You Boxes

In lieu of sending packages, consider signing your cadet up to receive monthly Thinking of You (TOY) Boxes. TOY Boxes are a Parents Committee initiative that delivers a goodie-bag full of surprises to cadet's QM mailboxes once a month. Each month, they have a different theme and include different items and snacks. 

Boxes are $10 each and all proceeds from this fundraiser are used to support various Parents Committee activities that benefit all cadets throughout the year, such as holiday parties, items for the barracks, study breaks with milk and cookies before finals, and more. Order your cadet's TOY Box here.


Non-Food Items

Concerning non-food items, please review your enrollment supplement for the list of recommended and approved items for barracks. Developing self-discipline and maintaining order through a clean room is taught at MMA, and as such, we will limit what is kept at MMA to what is listed in your enrollment supplement. Unauthorized items brought from home will be shipped home at the guardian’s expense.

Keepsakes and valuables, such as rings, valuable watches or other articles of real or sentimental value should not be brought to campus. The Academy assumes no liability in case of loss or damage.

Concerning items, anything sent that is not authorized or exceeds the size or quantity held by his lock box will be locked away in a supply room. Your cadet already has everything he needs at MMA. 


Addressing Packages

When packages arrive for cadets, information is often cut off on the address label. To help ensure that your package arrives timely to your cadet, please make sure only his name is in the "to" field on the package.

You do not need to spell out "Missouri Military Academy." Instead, please list as "MMA" or leave off completely. The cadet's name, street address, city, state and zip code are most important. 

Example Label:

Last Name, First Name (or first initial)
MMA (this is optional)
204 N. Grand Street
Mexico, MO 65265

If you have recently sent a package to your cadet that he has not yet received, please send him to the cadet store on campus. It is possible that we were unable to identify the rightful owner, and his unclaimed package is still waiting for him.  


Information from the Commandant

For more information regarding packages and mail, plus other valuable residential life information, watch the video from the Residential Life Q&A on July 21. 

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