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<p><font face='verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif' size='6' color='#000000'><center><b><a target="_blank" href='http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%257E21377%257E2057717,00.html'>Cell phone lost in L.A., found in Iraq</a></b></center></font><p> <font face='verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif' size='4' color='#000000'><center></center></font>
<p><font face='verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif' size='-2' color='#000000'><b>By
Dennis McCarty
Staff Writer
Daily News</b></font>
<p>
<font face='verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif' size='-1' color='#000000'><b>Friday,
April 02, 2004</b></font>
<P><i>Odds and ends from around the Valley:</i>

Here's one the volunteers at Operation Gratitude thought you might enjoy.

The day after Thanksgiving, they were working in the California National Guard Armory in Reseda assembling gift packages to send to U.S. troops in Iraq when Sharon Howard noticed her cell phone was missing.

"We laughingly speculated that it might have fallen out of her pocket and was on its way to Iraq," said Carolyn Blashek, who started Operation Gratitude in her Encino living room and has watched it grow until dozens of
local volunteers helped her ship out more than 8,000 packages to our troops in Iraq.

One of those packages landed on the cot of Army Spc. Chad Butenschon on Christmas morning. He couldn't believe how generous the people of the San Fernando Valley were, sending soldiers all these nice things -- and a cell phone, too.

Last Sunday morning, the phone in Howard's home rang. It was Butenschon calling to thank her. He had just returned home from Iraq.

"He said when he opened the package on Christmas and saw the cell phone, he thought, wow, these people are generous," she said, laughing.

"It was dead when he tried to turn it on, and he figured someone had probably dropped it into the package by mistake. He kept it with his belongings, and when he got home he charged it up and found my phone number stored init."

Butenschon wanted her address so he could mail back her cell phone, but what he really wanted was to thank her and the other volunteers at Operation Gratitude for making last Christmas a little bit cheerier for a couple of hundred soldiers in his unit.

All the hours these dedicated volunteers have spent this past year gathering and sending out those gift packages to faceless soldiers is finally coming full circle, Blashek said.

"As the first rotation of troops starts arriving home, they're starting to call us," she said. "We're finally getting to put a voice and a face with those packages."

The next big push for Operation Gratitude will begin later this month -- to get more care packages to our troops in Iraq for Memorial Day, May 31.
If you want to become a volunteer or donate to the cause, click on the "Donate" button on the front page, right side.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING NEWS

Interview with Carolyn Blashek

Aired November 8, 2003 - 09:24 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: You know, you don't have to be in the military to serve the country. Carolyn Blashek was motivated to enlist after the attacks of 9/11, but she was told that she was too old. Well, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Blashek found another way to serve, one that is doing a lot more good than she might have imagined.
Carolyn Blashek join us now live from Encino, California, to talk more about what she is doing with Operation Gratitude.

And Carolyn, great to have you with us this morning.

CAROLYN BLASHEK, OPGRATITUDE.COM (on phone): Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

ROBERTS: OK, so it's called Operation Gratitude. But let's explain to everybody, what is this?

BLASHEK: What this is, is, is a way for the American public and for me personally to show our support and appreciation for the troops by sending care packages to them. And the care packages have a whole assortment of items, snacks, entertainment, things like DVDs, CDs, books, cameras, games, phone cards, et cetera.

And it's really just a way of saying, We're still thinking about you. We appreciate what you're doing for us. We recognize that you've taken an oath to lay down your life for us, and we are going to thank you and never forget you.

ROBERTS: And Carolyn, just so everybody knows about this, you first went to go enlist after the 9/11 attacks, but were turned away because of age. But then there was another reason that you were also inspired to do this. Will you tell us?

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0311/08/smn.12.html">CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW ON CNN ©</a>

© 2003 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.

[img align=right]http://www.opgratitude.com/images/carolynb.jpg[/img]Carolyn Blashek wanted to fight the war on terror. When the military told her she was too old to join the reserves, the 40-something mom volunteered at the USO in Los Angeles instead.

During the buildup to the war in Iraq, a soldier came into the office looking for a chaplain. But Mrs. Blashek was the only one on duty that day. Through tears, he told her he was on emergency leave from Korea for his mother's funeral. His wife had left him several years ago, and his only child had died as an infant.

"He said, 'I'm going back over there; I don't know if I'll ever return, and I don't think anyone would ever care.' And it just tore me apart," Blashek says in a phone interview. "That moment made me realize that troops going into harm's way need to believe that someone at home loves them, and someone needs them to come home - so that they have the strength and the courage to face what they're facing."

In past wars, people could address letters and care packages generically "to any soldier," she says. But because of post-Sept. 11 security, they now need specific names. She decided to be the middle person - collecting names of troops abroad and gathering donations and letters from people like her - Americans who want to show their gratitude but don't have family or friends of their own in the military.

Operation Gratitude was born. From her home in Encino, Calif., she sent out about 650 packages in the first six months - sometimes including personal requests. Blashek recalls digging through donations to find Old Spice products for one soldier.

Earlier this month, she paired up with the local National Guard and volunteers to send 4,000 holiday packages - snacks, disposable cameras, phone cards, DVDs, and blank greeting cards so the soldiers could write home. Most important, she included in each box two pages of encouraging messages from people who had contacted her through Operation Gratitude's website (www.opgratitude.com).

Even though she rises by 6 a.m. and typically works on the project till 10:00 at night, Blashek doesn't take personal credit. "These men and women have taken an oath to lay down their life for me. They don't know me ... [but] they have made huge sacrifices so that I and my kids can continue to live our lives. There's no way I can show enough appreciation for that."

<a href="http://csmonitor.com/2003/1124/p14s01-wmgn.html">....Read the whole article</a><br> © 2003 www.csmonitor.com

By JENNIFER WHATLEY
Brigitte Kock says she is confused. She struggles with the absence of her husband day after day and month after month, and says she perceives a lack of interest has developed in the community about soldiers stationed in Iraq. Her husband, Robert John Kock, is a reserve officer in Iraq. His unit was activated in March 2003 and he is expected to return home in June.

<center>By
<a href=http://toogoodreports.com/column/reader/holley/20030929.htm#holley target="blank">Kathryn Holley</a>
</center>
It's the thought that counts.

Never does that old adage hold more power than when you find yourself alone on foreign soil, fighting for your life and hearing rumors that your country no longer supports you.

"When troops are out in remote places, they don't have access to news on a regular basis and rumors abound," says retired Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Michael R. S. Teilman, who now heads the Bob Hope Hollywood USO. "They hear about protest marches, the president getting lambasted, and they don't know if there is going to be a backlash when they get home, like there was after Vietnam."

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