The Power of One: Making a Difference
By Carolyn Blashek
Nov 19, 2009 - 6:46:45 PM
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VAN NUYS, CA - In the midst of its historic Holiday Care Package Drive, during which it will ship its milestone 500,000th care package, Operation Gratitude launched a unique 'Power of One' fundraising campaign.
Noting that last year, an Operation Gratitude package cost $10 to send,
this year...and two postal increases later...that same package now costs
$11.00 to send. While the single $1.00 per package increase
may not seem terribly significant, the organization's founder, Carolyn
Blashek, stressed that raising only the same amount of money as last year,
$600,000, would mean that 6,000 of our troops would not have a
package to open for the holidays.
 "But YOU can change that with the
'Power of One.' Each single dollar you add to your donation
allows us to send one more package....which means one less brave warrior will be
disappointed," Blashek told more than 900 volunteers at the care package
assembly on November 14 at the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys.
Blashek related the story of a single item's journey: A plain brown carton
filled with assorted items arrived at the armory from a town in the Mid-West.
It was another of the many generous donations Operation Gratitude receives from
individuals and companies anxious to demonstrate their support for the
men and women defending our country.
 On Assembly Day, the item was placed in a care package
along with a DVD, foot powder, flash drive, candy, hand warmers and 50 other
products. The care
package in which it was placed moved along the assembly line and looked like
any other of the 8000 packages completed that day.
The package sat with all the others on a pallet, outside the Armory
awaiting shipment to the Post Office and
 then on to the particular individual serving in Iraq or
Afghanistan.
Two months later, its special nature was revealed in an email
received by Operation Gratitude. The Soldier wrote that he figured volunteers
felt a bit silly sending Beanie Babies to Soldiers in a combat zone.
It
turns out he was the person who received that one special package that
included the Beanie Baby with the special destiny.
He
wrote:
 "We gave that Beanie Baby to an Iraqi child who then
gave us a tip. He told us that bad people were making bombs in his
neighborhood. The information he gave us led to a major terrorist cell being
captured and countless lives, American and Iraqi, being
saved."
Blashek emphasized to the crowd of volunteers: "One Beanie Baby, one
package, one thoughtful donation allowed one more American son or daughter,
father or mother, sister or brother, to come home. And that one symbolic item
of kindness ensured that an Iraqi family could witness their child growing
up."
Operation Gratitude's motto for the remainder of the Holiday
season is the 'Power of One' -- the power of every American
to raise $660,000, one dollar by one dollar
to make certain every deployed Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine and Coast
Guardsman receives one package with one special item and one touching letter.
Donations to Operation Gratitude are tax
deductible:
$ 11 will send another care package.
$110 will send 10 packages.
$550 would boost the morale of 50 service members during an
otherwise very difficult time away from home, and just might...save many
lives.
"You may never know the impact of each one of your packages," Blashek
concluded. "But you do know that every package will make a difference to one
Warrior."
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ABOUT OPERATION GRATITUDE
Operation Gratitude ( www.OperationGratitude.com) is the California- based
501 (c) (3) non-profit, volunteer organization that annually sends 100,000+ care
packages filled with snacks, entertainment items and personal letters of
appreciation addressed to individually named U.S. Service Members deployed in
hostile regions such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and on Naval ships at sea. Its
mission is to lift morale, bring a smile to a service member's face and express
to all Armed Forces the appreciation and support of the American people. Each
package contains donated product valued at ~$100 and costs the organization $11
to assemble and ship. For safety and security, assembling of packages occurs at
the Army National Guard armory in Van Nuys, California. By the end of 2009,
Operation Gratitude will have shipped more than 500,000 packages to American
Military deployed overseas. |
| CONTACT INFO:
Carolyn Blashek
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