Mark Serafin: Huge Packers fan looking for your help
Mark Serafin is like all Packers fans. He loves to watch the team or listen to games whenever the team hits the field, he loves to collect anything that has the Green Bay logo – he even convinced his wife to jump on the bandwagon and become a follower of the Green and Gold. And of course, his little boy is being raised the right way – as a mini-Packers fan.
Mark, like any fan of an NFL team, will follow his squad to all ends of the earth, if need be.
And that’s what he’s done. That’s because Mark is a Marine stationed somewhere in Afghanistan.
But now that the season is over, Mark, like the rest of us is without the Packers to fill his Sundays.
That’s why he wrote me recently … mostly out of desperation. You see, he had written several other Packers sites asking a simple question: He’s wondering if anyone would be willing to send him some Green Bay Packers-related items that he could use to help decorate his simple abode. Anything … posters, pictures, stickers … whatever anyone would be willing to send.
It’s a simple request really. Are you up to it?
That’s why I’m reaching out to all Packers fans everywhere and anywhere to help Mark out. Would you be willing to do so? Contact information is below.
But before that, here’s a little bit about Mark:
“I’m 21, a Corporal of Marines (we do not like to be called soldiers, we earned our title of Marine, it’s just a right of passage. hah). I have been in almost 3 years, I plan on re-enlisting. I have done alot of things out here, but now I’m with a security element.”
When he is back in the states, Mark is stationed at Camp Pendeleton, Calif. He says that he and his family are constantly surrounded by those who wear their San Diego, San Francisco and Oakland jerseys, but he is most proud when he can go out to a Wal-Mart wearing his Packers jersey.
“I walk right into the middle of all of them at Wal-Mart on Saturday with my Packers jersey on – Clay Matthews or my J Finley to be exact – and my wife with her Aaron Rodgers, and son with his John Kuhn. But I am from Pennsylvania, born and raised. I became a Packers fan because when I was little, my uncles liked the Eagles, and my father liked the Dolphins. I was tired of wearing a different hat or shirt every other weekend. That year Brett Favre was in the Super Bowl with his team and now my NFL love is the Packers. I was around the age of 5 or 6.
“Yes, we are able to watch games [in Afghanistan], like I got to watch one or two … fuzzy TV and blackout type of deals, but when I couldn’t watch them, best believe I was missing my 3 or 4 hours of sleep.”
Because of the fact that he doesn’t get to see a lot of football, especially Packers games, he said he is hoping that folks stateside would be willing to send him anything associated with the Packers.
“Pretty much anything Packers sent would be great. I don’t expect autographed cards, or anything … lol … but this would be stuff I WILL bring home with me, and keep forever. Everything anybody would do would be greatly appreciated. Ask my wife – before we even got married she knew, because I told her, the Packers were my first love, and if she was ever to try to take a Sunday away from me and my team, she could just watch me walk out [jokingly] lol. My wife and I have been together since high school, and been married one year and 11 months to date. This is our first deployment. And trust me, it’s hard not to see either of them. I haven’t had much time with him [his son] considering the training building up to Afghanistan the whole year before I left and now me being here. Now my son, is about to be 2, and is a DIEHARD fan also, the only words he was saying before I left was ‘ball, catch, throw,’ lol and that was at the age of about 1 year and a month or 2. He has a mini-Kuhn jersey, custom made, a Packers pillow pet, lol. Another Packers fan is always a good thing. My wife took the reins over this season when I left and she watched every game, with her Aaron Rodgers jersey on – religiously. She has grown to love the Packers, too, always asking me ‘When does the game start?'”
So, if you’re interested in writing to Mark to simply thank him for his service to our country, or if you’re interested in talking about the Packers, here is his email address: serafinfamilia@gmail.com.
If you’re interested in sending Mark any kind of Packers memorabilia, you may do so by sending it directly to him in Afghanistan at his address and asking him for his mailing address.
Or you may also send anything Packers-related to him via his wife in California. She will be sure things get to him. That address is:
Mark Serafin
100B Wonju Circle
Oceanside, Calif. 92058
Again, we want to thank Mark for all he is sacrificing and all he is doing for us. We also want to thank him for his love of the Green Bay Packers and hope all Packers fans who read this will send him SOMETHING!
Thanks again, Mark. Stay well and be safe.