A living room in San Fernando Valley once headquartered Operation Gratitude and mailed personalized care packages to troops. Now based in Chatsworth, the nonprofit still lifts morale and says ̵…
The Bob Hope USO lounge at LAX was empty the day a young soldier walked in and asked to speak with a chaplain. The volunteer on duty told him she’d call and see if there was a chaplain available to come out to the airport.
She’d care, Blashek said. The American people would care. The soldier thanked her for listening, and left to catch his flight — leaving her sitting there wishing she had found the right words a chaplain would have used to ease the soldiers mind. From her living room, with the help of two friends, Nancy Levy and Cheryl Zerah, she began assembling care packages, each with a letter from a child written to a specific person, not just “To a Soldier,” like other care packages. It had to be personal to be felt, that was important.
“One night he returned to the barracks and there was a package from your Operation Gratitude on his bunk addressed to him. He couldn’t believe it. He opened the package and began reading the letters from elementary school kids wishing him a safe return home. She thought of that young soldier in the USO lounge who never got to talk to a chaplain. In a way, her care packages were like a chaplain — lifting morale and showing our troops far from home that there were people thinking of them, people who cared.
There were seniors, police officers, firefighters, nurses and a wide array of people from across the San Fernando Valley who were there because they cared. They were joined by returning Gulf War veterans who had received Operation Gratitude care packages themselves.
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Personalized care packages to troops from Operation Gratitude lift morale, and may have saved a lifeA living room in San Fernando Valley once headquartered Operation Gratitude and mailed personalized care packages to troops. Now based in Chatsworth, the nonprofit still lifts morale and says &821…
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