![\"Jordan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f72cd9ce-f724-4353-b00b-75b6f68bbfd9_1741638211.png\")
<\/a>PITTSBURGH \u2014<\/p>\nA Pittsburgh-based nonprofit said the U.S. Navy would not accept a shipment of care packages for service members. <\/p>\n
Tracey Arthrell is the vice president of Collin’s Elves, which was started by her teenage son, Collin Arthrell, in 2018 when he was 8 years old. The organization has been sending care packages to deployed service members ever since. <\/p>\n
“Since then, over 50,000 have been distributed worldwide,\u201d Tracey Arthrell told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 reporter Jordan Cioppa. <\/p>\n
Arthrell said in the spring, the organization received anonymous requests for donations to the USS George H.W. Bush and the USS Abraham Lincoln, citing a shortage of food and hygiene supplies. <\/p>\n
“There was a few that kept saying that the Bush and the Lincoln were really struggling,\u201d Arthrell said. <\/p>\n
Collin’s Elves jumped into action and collected donations for the sailors. <\/p>\n
By the end of the drive, the nonprofit had more than 60 shareable boxes filled with enough supplies for up to 10 people each. <\/p>\n
“We had hoped that we could collectively send it as one shipment to the ship and they could have dispersed it as needed or replenished where they felt it needed to be done the most,\u201d Arthrell said. <\/p>\n
The USS Lincoln has recently come into question after reports of deteriorating conditions. While Arthrell said she never heard back from officials on the Lincoln, she was in contact with Command Master Chief Jarriel Gardner on the Bush. <\/p>\n
Arthrell provided an email exchange with Gardner to Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4. <\/p>\n
In an email from May, Gardner called attention to a Facebook post by the nonprofit. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were surprised to see a post on your Facebook page stating that our ship has been rationing food- this is not the case. We have plenty of food onboard and have been conducting normal meal service since we departed for deployment,\u201d the email read. <\/p>\n
The chief went on to request the identity of the service members who provided information to the nonprofit. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo that we can figure out what happened and enable better communication in the future, could you share with me how you came to believe we were rationing food? If you do not have names; rank, paygrade, Officer, Chief or Junior Sailor would be helpful,\u201d Gardner said in the email.<\/p>\n
He added that they would be putting a pause on the acceptance of shipments. <\/p>\n
“I was very shocked because, first off, I’m a civilian. I’m not in the military. We’re trying to do a good thing here. We’re just trying to help. And I felt blackmailed,\u201d Arthrell said. <\/p>\n
Worried the shipment would not get to its intended destination, Arthrell said they sent the packages to individual service members who were signed up to receive them. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, we are happy that we were able to get them to the Bush and some to the front lines of Iran,\u201d Arthrell said. <\/p>\n
Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 reached out to the U.S. Navy for comment but did not immediately hear back. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Navy official paused donation acceptance, local nonprofit says PITTSBURGH \u2014 A Pittsburgh-based nonprofit said the U.S. Navy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[900,67213,112904,6093,87259,15868,112905,112902,20115,1515,108707,73,75,74,2730,24754,26516,112903,198,112900,112901],"class_list":["post-267818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-action-news","tag-bush","tag-care-package-shipment","tag-chief","tag-collin-arthrell","tag-donation","tag-elves","tag-email-exchange","tag-facebook-post","tag-food","tag-gardner","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-nonprofit","tag-sailor","tag-service-member","tag-shipment","tag-united-states-navy","tag-uss-bush","tag-uss-lincoln"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}