Copying Single Cells Pasting into Merged Cells

I have one worksheet with text in several single cells, say B5..B20. I'm trying to copy them onto another worksheet into a set of merged cells (I merged 8 columns in each row for appearance's sake).

When I do a copy of B5..B20, then highlight the merged cells and do a paste, Excel removes the merging and puts 8 copies of the data from B5..B20 in the formerly merged rows.

The only way I've found to get the second worksheet formatted like I'd like is to clear all but the first of the 8 cells on the second sheet, then go back and merge the 8 cells in each individual row.

Minor inconvenience if it was really only 16 rows, but a major one if I'm trying to copy 250 rows. Any ideas? Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks!