HOLIDAY DRIVE 2005 Surpasses All Expectations!

Blackanthem Military News, ENCINO, California, February 11, 2006 10:50

Starting in October and continuing beyond the New Year, the intrepid Operation Gratitude Volunteers, led by the fantastic Hard Corps, joyfully dedicated themselves to receiving, inspecting and sorting the tens of thousands of donations shipped from more than 2700 collection drives throughout the nation. 400 Jeep Dealers across the country acted as Official Operation Gratitude Drop-Off Sites, sending from 2 to 50 cartons of items collected from local supporters.

During the Veterans' and Thanksgiving Weekends in November and several weekends in December, more than 1000 volunteers gathered at the Army National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, CA to assemble the Holiday Care Packages. On the first day of the Drive, Major General Mark Hertling from US Army-Europe, Germany, who is a great supporter of Operation Gratitude, diverted from another mission to thank all the great volunteers, including participants from as far away as Hawaii, Texas, Phoenix and New York, some of whom flew all night to join us!

The gift boxes were filled with items donated by 62 corporate sponsors and thousands of individual donors. Items included SanDisk Flash Drives, Holiday Greeting cards, DVDs, Music CDs, disposable cameras, energy bars, snacks, candy and cookies, t- shirts, socks, hand and foot warmers, AA batteries, hand-knit hats and scarves, Craisins, HOOAH Bars, phone cards, SF Bay Coffee, Newmans Own popcorn, personal letters of appreciation and various other goodies.

The 100,000th Care Package, which will be delivered in person when the service member returns to the U.S., included two tickets to a 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race donated by sponsor Checkers/Rally, the official burger of NASCAR, as well as free Checkers/Rally food for one year. As the 100,000th package was assembled, SSG Elizabeth Cowie and Carolyn Blashek presented Plaques of Appreciation to the corporate sponsors and other significant supporters whose extraordinary generosity and dedication enabled Operation Gratitude to reach this milestone event.
 

THE 2006 PATRIOTIC DRIVE STARTS SOON! 40,000 Packages To Be Sent

The Patriotic Drive packaging will start over the Armed Forces Weekend, May 20-21, continue through the Memorial Weekend, May 27-29 and conclude during the Father's Day Weekend, June 17-18, 2006. We urge all supporters to start organizing their collection drives and letter writing campaigns NOW, as we will need alot of products to fill 40,000 Patriotic Packages! We need to receive all item donations between May 8 and June 15.

We are looking for all our usual Wish List items of snacks and entertainment items. In addition, due to their previous popularity, we are particularly requesting: Computer Flash Drives, Bandana Cool-Ties and Battery Operated Mini- Fans, DVDs of movies and TV shows, Music CDs and Girl Scout Cookies.

The troops always tell us that reading the letters included in our packages is a real highlight of their day. We urge all supporters to write as many letters as possible; please include your name and address in each letter so the recipients can choose to write back. Teachers: this is a wonderful class project for your students!

Related Website : Operation Gratitude

By Carolyn Blashek

Operation Gratitude