Carolyn Blashek Quotations

He was very agitated and very upset. He'd been in the military for about 20 years. He asked to speak to a chaplain.

We decided that between the two of us we'd probably have about 1,000 names, but we set a goal of 1,500 names and said we'd send something to every person. We figured Veterans Day weekend would be perfect because that would give us about six weeks before Christmas to get the stuff over there.

Thousands of volunteers and supporters say how appreciative they are to have an avenue to express their thanks to the troops.

I designed it initially in such a way that any American could participate. That always ends up being the most precious gift in the care packages.

We didn't even know them; they just appeared. We ended up sending more than 3,000 packages that weekend. It really snowballed. People overseas started to hear about what we were doing, so I started getting a lot more requests for packages.

Within a few months, my living room was filled with donated items from people all over this area in southern California. I still had to pay for the postage. But every time I'd think I was down to my last dollars, a check would amazingly appear. Operation Gratitude just started to sustain itself.