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Posted on July 21, 2010 - 14:09 PM |
MYRTLE BEACH - A Fort Bragg soldier just back from Afghanistan is anxiously awaiting the day he gets the Harley Davidson motorcycle that matches the keys he found in a care package.
Army Staff Sergeant Michael Fullerton, with 82nd Division Special Troops Battalion is one of two soldiers who found Harley Davidson keys in care packages from the States.
Fullerton will receive his Harley Sportster in a Presentation Ceremony on Friday, July 23, 2010.
The ceremony is to take place at 12:30 pm at the Hall of Heroes, which is located at The Rawcliffe Conference Center, 201 75th Ave North, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The bikes were donated by Lee Rawcliffe, owner of Sands Resorts and Don Allen, CEO of American Veterans Traveling Tribute to show their appreciation to the men and women serving in the U.S. military.
They asked Operation Gratitude to assist in the random selection of two soldiers.
Operation Gratitude, a non-profit organization that puts together care packages for soldiers, dropped the keys into 2 random, unmarked care packages.
What a surprise when Fullerton and US Army Sergeant William Herne, an infantryman with the 82nd Airborne Division, opened their care packages.
“I’m still in shock from winning so I’m a little lost for words. It’s the coolest thing I’ve received in my life,“ said Herne, a native of Addison, NY.
Fullerton, a native of Quincy, Mass. was very happy because his wife likes motorcycles and it will be a treat for her.
Herne will receive his bike when he returns from overseas this fall.
“Our purpose is to show continuous support for the Americans who protect our country,“ said Lee Rawcliffe.
In 2009, Sands Resorts dedicated Hall of Heroes, a tribute to American Heroes throughout the history of our country.
Additionally, Sands Resorts and AVTT have partnered on various projects of gratitude for Wounded Warriors and VFWs.
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Posted on April 26, 2010 - 13:01 PM |
Runners crawl though the mud field at the first ever Merrell Down & Dirty Mud Run at Castaic Lake State Recreation Area. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News)
CASTAIC — For the thousands who converged on Castaic Lake early Sunday, one thing beat rolling over for an extra hour of sleep.
Slogging head to toe in mud at a first-annual Los Angeles mud run.
"We are ready for a roll in the mud," said Ellie Woods, 33, of Sherman Oaks, among some late-night delivery nurses from Valley Presbyterian Hospital queuing up at the 8 a.m. starting gate.
"Dirty is Perty," proclaimed their camouflage tank tops.
The sold-out Merrell Down & Dirty Mud Run drew 3,000 scramblers from across the Southland to the Castaic Lake State Recreation Area for 5K and 10K runs and shorter dashes for the kids.
But the real reward at the lakeside obstacle course was mud.
Participants paid $50 and up to dash through slimy tunnels. Wade through a muddy lake. Scramble over head-high hurdles.
And crawl face down through a giant mud pit while National Guardsmen yelled, "Push, push, push!"
"Been mud wrestlin'," said Elizabeth Diaz, 45, a teacher from Covina, drenched in caramel-colored slime. "Slinging mud. Scrambling though mud. I might as well be an alligator.
"And I get a beauty spot treatment - dip your body in mud. That's right, baby! I just took off five years."
The paramilitary style event, to be followed by others in Philadelphia, New York and Sacramento, included live music, a barbecue and a shot at hosing off the muck.
It also raised an estimated $30,000
for Operation Gratitude, which sends care packages and letters to front-line troops overseas.
"People go through an obstacle course and get muddy as heck for a great cause," said run announcer Tim Bomba, as wave upon wave of runners headed off to do the worm. "It's great."
Those from Operation Gratitude were overwhelmed by the muddy field maneuvers.
"I'm actually speechless, I had no idea," said Carolyn Blashek, founder of the Van Nuys charity that ships 100,000 care packages a year. "This is an operation gratitude - and an operation of so much love."
Runners from across Los Angeles drove past Six Flags Magic Mountain after learning of the event from online message boards.
"I'm a kid at heart," said Ken Lukaszonas, 34, of Lancaster, his eyelashes sticking with goo and whose two children joined in the fun.
"I still like playing in the mud."
Some wore purple tutus. Others dressed as Santa Claus or the Cat in the Hat. One bounder came dressed as Beetlejuice, while another donned sport coat, oxford shirt and tie.
"We are nuts," said Karla Helsley, 37, of Valencia, who raced an Old Orchard neighborhood group of "mud princesses" in purple-and-pink tutus and tiaras.
Manuel Ruiz, a "fairy godfather" with a hot pink boa and tiara, clenched an unlit cigar after winning a $500 prize for best costume.
"It's about supporting the troops," said Ruiz, 30, of Los Angeles, before running his first 10K. "I thought it would be funny, to come completely insane."
But the real winner could have been Laura DeSantiago, if she ever had found her muddy mate.
For DeSantiago, in a white wedding dress and veil, had run the course hoping for muddy nuptials.
"I don't have a groom," said DeSantiago, 44, of Pasadena, wielding a bride's bouquet before the starting gun. "I want a muddy husband.
"I want to kiss and hug somebody after I finish."
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Posted on November 26, 2009 - 19:23 PM |
By Sophia Fischer sfischer@theacorn.com
Beanie Babies and Webkinz are saving lives overseas, and Oak Park High School students are lending a hand..
The school’s student council, known as the Associated Student Body, is collecting the plush toys from Mon., Nov. 30 through Fri., Dec. 4. Collection boxes will be set up throughout the campus. The public may drop off donations in the school office at 899 Kanan Road.
The stuffed toys will be brought to Operation Gratitude in Van Nuys, where they will be packed and shipped to United States soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The nonprofit sends care packages to overseas troops. Operation Gratitude has been sending the toys to troops since 2004. Soldiers have written letters of appreciation telling how the stuffed animals not only boost morale among the troops but have also saved their lives.
One Army captain 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.”
Others wrote of similar incidents in which soldiers presented candy and toys to local children who then provided information on where roadside bombs were hidden.
When Oak Park High senior Steven Rich heard about the toy project he wanted to contribute. Steven and his family—parents Jonathan and Becky and sister Emily—have been Operation Gratitude volunteers since April, packing care packages.
“I have friends who are in active service; it’s a cause close to my heart,” Steven said.
He had already encouraged Oak Park’s elementary school students to write letters to troops. The letters are included in the care packages.
“When Steven said, ‘I want to do something in our community,’ we were going to just start on a small scale and ask our friends for Beanie Babies,” Becky Rich said.
She credited Shelly Resnick, the mother of Steven’s best friend Matthew, with encouraging the project to be brought to the high school.
Matthew invited Steven to give a presentation about the idea to the student council, of which Matthew is a member. The council, made up of about 40 students, was supportive of the project, Matthew said.
“We believe very strongly in our troops. We support what they’re doing 100 percent,” said Matthew, a senior. “If they’re willing to risk their lives to protect our country, we can do something to help them out.”
The council leads a number of annual schoolwide community service efforts, including food and blood drives, but this was the first time a student who is not a council member came in with an idea, said Matthew, who has known Steven since kindergarten.
The entire Rich family, including Steven’s older brother Michael and his girlfriend, will spend the day after Thanksgiving packing boxes at Operation Gratitude.
“When we worked there two weeks ago there was a 97-year-old woman who had knit 140 scarves and hats for the service men and women to stay warm. These went into the packages,” Becky Rich said. “It really choked me up.”
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Posted on November 26, 2009 - 19:22 PM |
By Kyle-Anne Shiver
It goes without saying, of course, that all good things come from God. It is to Him, above all, that we owe our lives, our liberties and our individual pursuits of happiness on this earth.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Let it ring in glorious chorus from all over the land this Thanksgiving.
We ourselves, though, are God\'s hands on earth, His workers, His vintners, His harvesters of these our many good gifts. As all wise men and women know, God helps those who help themselves.
So, I say, if we and our families are blessed with freedom this year, then we must thank a soldier. Freedom, as the sentient saying goes, was never free. And it never will be.
Without those Americans ready to shoulder the burdens of our defenses -- most of us city-dwelling, computer-whizzing, armchair-quarterbacking, cocktail-partying, tennis-playing, lunch-doing, mall-shopping, celebrity-ogling, book-reading, podium-pontificating Americans - would be up the creek in dangerous waters without so much as a twig for a paddle.
And this year, more than most, the American citizen\'s burden of gratitude is far greater than average.
We have just suffered the first terrorist attack on our own soil since 9/11. Now, let those safely-ensconced, bubble-headed media elites go on and on all they want with their armchair psychobabble. Anyone with better than a pea-sized brain and an ounce of common sense understands exactly what happened at Ft. Hood.
It was solitary jihad. It was solitary jihad. It was solitary jihad.
" Our army\'s own top officer, General George Casey,
thinks more Ft.-Hood-type attacks would actually be better than if our troops\' \"diversity\" were to suffer:
\"Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that\'s worse.\"
As a mother, I have to wonder whether these dimwits would be singing the same tune if the people killed were little American school children and the shooter was their bus driver, hired by a diversity chief. Perhaps in these leaders\' addled minds, soldiers are expendable pawns, not flesh-and-blood sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives.
But there you have it, dear readers. President Obama and General Casey would seem to prefer the innocent shedding of real human blood to profiling against even the self-sworn, very vocal enemies within our midst.
With friends like these...
So, this Thanksgiving, more than in any year since 9/11, I\'m writing the biggest check I possibly can to my favorite troop-support group.
Operation Gratitude says it all. It\'s not political; it\'s just plain thankfulness. Thankful for each and every man and woman, willing to lay down his or her life for the safety of all Americans. Without them, there would be no more Thanksgiving Days.
Operation Gratitude is the only troop-support organization in which every single penny donated actually goes to pay postage for care packages sent to our troops. Not one penny goes for any other expense; none goes for salaries or advertising. Thousands of pure volunteers - receiving not a penny for their time and effort - work tirelessly throughout the year to gather the donated items, which fill each package, addressed to an individual soldier or Marine in harm\'s way.
Thousands more volunteers lovingly assemble each package in Van Nuys, California and fill it to the brim with snacks, DVDs, phone cards, toiletries and anything else America\'s companies, civic groups and individuals donate to the cause. Handwritten letters and cards from real Americans go into each and every package.
But, sadly, in this age of profligate government spending, rampant with waste and fraud and political payoffs, postage for packages going to soldiers and Marines in harm\'s way is an expense our congress simply cannot abide.
They\'ll spend our money to frank their own political mail from their offices. They\'ll spend our money to build bridges to nowhere and airports with no passengers. They\'ll spend thousands of dollars each year for fresh flowers to adorn the Speaker\'s offices. They\'ll spend our money on every frivolous absurdity the mind can imagine, but they won\'t spend it to get packages to our troops in the war zones.
In this age of utter moral confusion, we can thank the Good Lord every minute of the day that some people remain on the straight and narrow and do the good that must be done. One such group of well-grounded folks is Operation Gratitude. The holiday drive is underway. It costs $11 this year to send a single package to the middle east, where most are headed.
Yes, this whole column is a thoroughly shameless, unapologetically transparent plea for money. There are scores of groups asking for it and most are worthy of every penny. But
Operation Gratitude is my favorite. It was started by a mom in her own living room with not an ounce of support from any fat-cat or bigwig. In only 6 years, it has grown to a veritable homefront army, sending not only good cheer and morale-boosting goodies to our beloved troops in harm\'s way, but enriching a grateful nation - one person at a time - in the process. So, if you possibly can, please donate to the holiday drive this year. More than ever, our troops need to know we love them and appreciate them and honor them -- with all our hearts and souls and wallets.
Happy Thanksgiving Day 2009! We\'re still free, hallelujah! God-granting and soldiers willing to serve, we always will be.
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/blessed_with_freedom_thank_a_s.html at November 26, 2009 - 07:23:04 PM EST
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Posted on June 28, 2009 - 22:35 PM |
Operation Gratitude does one thing (care packages) and does it well. There is no way they could have grown to this large of an operation, be getting addresses straight from the commanders of our military themselves, and be able to send a box out for $11 filled with items with a value of $100, if they did not know what they are doing! In addition to those main two drives, if a commander contacts them with an emergency need, the a shipment is sent out. To date, they have sent out 450,799 care packages! Just in a 6 year period...
How do they do this? ALL items going into the care packages are donated. They have an extensive list of big name sponsors (see site here and here). Space at the California Army National Guard is donated. They use priority mailing boxes from the U.S.P.S. which are free to anyone. (By FREE, I mean the EMPTY BOX can be obtained directly from your local post office or online at no charge to any person or company) Volunteers arrive at specific times throughout the year to prep, assemble and label the care packages. There are over 7000 local volunteers, not including those across the country who donate goods. Each box currently costs Operation Gratitude $11 with $9.85 of that amount going just towards postage costs, leaving not much to cover other expenses including communications, storage, labels and forklift rental, to name a few.
There are several ways in which Operation Gratitude is unique in the Military Support community:
1. We send at least 100,000 care packages every year
2. Each Operation Gratitude care package is personally addressed to a deployed service member
3. We are an all-volunteer organization
4. Our administrative expenses are less than 2% of our budget
That is extremely impressive!! Not many 501(c)(3) organizations can even come close to saying that about their administrative expenses!
To read the rest of the article: War on Terror News
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