Operation Gratitude

From its inception in 2003, the mission of Operation Gratitude has been to lift morale, put a smile on a service member’s face and to express the appreciation of the American people for the sacrifices of the men and women defending our freedom. What began in one woman’s living room has spread across the entire country, bringing together volunteers of all ages, ethnic groups and economic backgrounds—doing everything from donating “wish list” items, to sending in financial contributions, writing letters of thanks to include in each box and convening at the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, CA for the caring and joyful assembly of thousands upon thousands of care packages.

In 2006 alone, our volunteers donated more than 53,000 hours of their time and talents to help make Operation Gratitude’s goals a reality. Due to their efforts, by mid-December 2007, over 300,000 packages will have been sent to individually-named troops deployed in combat zones overseas. This is possible because our volunteers work tirelessly and diligently to transform 1,500 flat boxes into goody-filled care packages that are taped, labeled, custom-formed and whisked out the door and into a U.S. Postal Service truck every hour!

More than 3,000 local Operation Gratitude volunteers put their hearts into every care package. Operation Gratitude volunteers are an eclectic group encompassing people in their 80s working side by side with teenagers. We have people from every walk of life including the rich and the poor, the able bodied, the handicapped, all races, nationalities and political persuasions. While our volunteers are quite diverse, they are confidently united in purpose: to show our respect, love and appreciation—and to pay back in some small measure what can never be fully repaid—the debt of gratitude we owe our heroes: the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Bryanna Odell

Bryanna is a senior at Rosary High School. Bryanna has been a Girl Scout for 13 years and is the President of her troop consisting of 45 girls from 7 different high schools. Bryanna just earned her Girl Scout Gold Award in June by creating a Seatbelt Safety Program for teenagers.

In August of 2005, she and her family witnessed the aftermath of a single van rollover accident on Highway 40 just outside Needles, CA. Bryanna and her family were on their way to Lake Havasu for a family vacation. The accident killed four people including the father and youngest daughter in the family. Three were ejected because they were not wearing their seatbelts. Bryanna watched as her mother who is a paramedic and father who is a firefighter came to the aid of the family. As Bryanna watched helplessly for over three hours, she could not imagine not ever getting in a car without her seatbelt.

Just three days after her vacation, Bryanna came home to find out that a friend of hers in her Girl Scout troop had just been killed in an auto accident. She was thrown from her dad’s car because she was not wearing her seatbelt. That summer motivated her to create a Seatbelt Program to remind everyone that they had a choice every time they got into a car. The choice was spend 2 seconds to put on your own buckle or get into an accident and get buckled by an ambulance or coroner. She developed a slogan, “The Car Shouldn’t Start, Til You Cross Your Heart”. She created a logo and designed bracelets. She then created a video that was shared at the local high schools during the Prom season.

Bryanna continues to serve in her community as a Junior Lifeguard, Girl Scout, Student Athletic Trainer and the “saver of lives”. Bryanna annually volunteers over 250 hours to others and will be donating her time with the Red Cross for those devastated by the wildfires in Southern California.

Diana Newton

Diana is the co-founder of the Silver Star Families of America (SSFOA). The SSFOA remembers, honors and assists the wounded of the Armed Forces in any way we can. They primarily provide Silver Star Banners and certificates to the wounded, and it is their prayer that every time someone sees a Banner in a window or a Silver Star Flag flying that they remember the blood shed for this great Nation.

Diana works tirelessly to make this happen. She has sent out over 1000 Banners and Certificates to wounded. She manages an organization that has grown from a few dedicated people to one of thousands across the country. Diana has gone more than the extra mile to send care packages for Christmas; flags to military and V.A. hospitals; organized a letter writing team to send cards and letters; started programs such as the Food Card program and Hand Held Game program to make the wounded’s recovery easier.

Diana has made the Silver Stars a primary resource for PTSD information and help and has gotten the organization on the Board of Directors of the Veterans Administrations VAVS Committee.

Barbara Morford

Barbara Morford has spent her fourth official season with no less than 60 consecutive 24-hour days as Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve’s sole representative in the Bremner Historic Mining District. This is a 14,000-acre property listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

As the only fulltime resident of this large and relatively inaccessible region, she monitors visitors, interprets history, documents resources, and provides emergency communications. Among other noteworthy achievements, Ms. Morford prevented an overzealous collector from removing parts from an historic vehicle. Through her attention to detail and quick thinking, Morford was able to secure the collector’s aircraft tail number, allowing park rangers to identify him. If that wasn’t enough, Morford single-handedly stopped an errant grizzly bear from destroying the site’s most significant building.

Ms. Morford’s archaeological background permitted her to continue her assistance to NPS curators inventory the district’s large mining objects. Her extensive backcountry experience helped her to move safely throughout the district, supplementing its botanical profile, conducting its first comprehensive invasive plant survey, completing an inventory of its birds and recording human impacts. In addition, she helped maintain the district’s 62 contributing historic features, identifying problems and implementing both short- and long-term solutions. Morford achieved all these objectives at a total cost of $1,000.

Carla Morales

Carla Morales technical experience is invaluable. She rebuilds at least three to four computer systems a week and donates them to nonprofit educational facilities, senior citizens, day care centers, low income families, low income college students and churches throughout the state of Colorado. She puts in at least 40 hours a week at Sun with her present position of Regulatory Engineer in the Product Safety Engineering Group and then donates 20-30 hours a week to rebuilding computers by picking up donations of parts from individuals, corporations, etc and she uses what she can to rebuild.

On average, she has donated at least 100 systems a year for the last 15 years to families in need. She has also taught a computer technician class for the last 4-1/2 years at the Mi Casa Resource Center for Women in Denver and a class at Casa De La Esperanza in Longmont. Finally, Carla teaches individuals how to use computers when she installs them in their homes and performs maintenance on these systems as needed.

Carla has also worked with the former StorageTek Latino group, Exito for the past seven years with many events and sponsored activities. Carla’s endless drive to volunteer for the various causes she supports has produced an astonishing number of volunteer hours, 1,250, so far this fiscal year.

Henry McGrath

Henry McGrath makes volunteering a priority. Daily much of his time is spent serving others. Because he has such a wide scope of service, it is hard to place his volunteer work into a couple “buckets.”

Henry has volunteered to teach the poor how to budget and repair credit, has helped to raise over $850,000 for child cancer research, and has worked with child trauma victims. He is a life counselor for the blind and disabled, teaches the public to express themselves and exercise the First Amendment through public access to, supports fathers groups, teaches how to start your own small business to teenagers assists victims of child sexual abuse and is a member of Protect.org. In addition, Henry campaigns for missing children ,networks artists, musicians and writers to work together for support, led peace marches in Northern Ireland, works with Veterans, has recognized people who are volunteers from all walks of life through the issuance of the President’s Volunteer Service Award, assists in the protection of animals and works with troubled animals.

He is director of the Freedom Action League and Voices of the People and is a member of Ancient Order of Hibernians, USA Freedom Corps, Citizens Corps, American Red Cross, Protect.Org, Fulton County Health Disaster Preparedness Team and a host of other positive groups.

Josiah Loll

Josiah Loll has been a mentor in the UMC Mentoring and Caring Program for the past two years. About the time his original mentee moved to Wisconsin, there was a request for a mentor for a severely autistic, completely non-verbal, 12-year-old boy. Obviously, this needed to be a thoughtfully chosen match, and Josiah was asked if he was up for the challenge. The first three weeks were difficult, and when Josiah returned to me asking for another mentee, I assumed that the situation simply was too difficult. However, Josiah wasn’t asking for a different child, he was asking for another child. Josiah was matched with a 16-year-old boy. He meets weekly with each of them. He really does understand that the needs of each of these boys are very different, and he adjusts his relationship with them to fit their needs. During Josiah’s freshman year, he worked as an America Reads Tutor in a kindergarten classroom at Washington Elementary School and assisted third and fifth graders with their homework at Cathedral School. After he ran out of work study funds, he continued to tutor on a volunteer basis. Last year, after completing his work study hours with another department on campus, he returned to the America Reads program and asked if he could volunteer as an America Reads tutor again. He currently is working with first graders as a reading coach at Washington Elementary School.

Josiah’s interest doesn’t end with tutoring and mentoring children though. A group of students, including Josiah, who already volunteer many hours through their club involvement, began working with senior citizens at the Villa St. Vincent, an assisted living facility in town. Since the beginning of the year, each week the group meets for about an hour and a half with residents of the Villa to assist them with their newsletter, play cards or games, or just visit with them. Josiah has formed many relationships with many of the residents at the Villa and visits them on his own between the regularly scheduled weekly visits.

Josiah played a leading role in the Crookston Community Theater presentation of “Dearly Departed” on the Kiehle Auditorium stage. This was a wonderful project in which the community theater and the UMC Theater Department collaborated on a very successful production; it would not have been possible without this partnership because the cast requirements called for several college age students as well as several older adults. Josiah displayed an unusual ability to work well with older adults in the community theater while playing his part very well. Members of the community theater commented on his reliability and talent.

Ron Lofton

Ron Lofton is a McDonald’s owner who runs an afterschool tutoring site. This program is a collaboration between McDonald’s and the North Lawndale YMCA known as McDonald’s YMCA Tutoring. Over the past eight years this program has provided 8,000 tutoring sessions. High School, YMCA and McDonald employee volunteers have logged more than 6,000 hours of service.

Students (K-8th) drop into McDonald’s Tutoring for a quiet place to study or read, receive homework help and school supplies. McDonald’s Tutoring provides whatever a student needs to achieve school success. Ron Lofton provides the site, food and supplies. The YMCA provides adult supervision and volunteer support. High school students volunteer to help out and to receive High School Service Learning credit.

Each day Ron Lofton and his McDonald’s staff provide a free meal to every participant who completes their academic assignments and shows a commitment to succeeding in school for that week. In addition to space and food, Ron provides his time and allows staff to assist with tutoring. He reads to the kids and provides holiday parties and Black History events at his restaurant and shows an interest in each child’s progress.

Linda Lewis

If it’s the 3rd Wednesday of the month, it must be chicken nugget night at Sarah’s House. Long-time volunteer Linda Lewis from Ark and Dove Presbyterian is known to the children at Sarah’s House as the chicken nugget lady. Each month Linda, accompanied by volunteers from the church, serves a menu that among other items, always includes the kid-friendly nuggets and tater tots. There are few leftovers after feeding more than 60 Sarah’s House clients, just many happy faces.

Linda and her volunteers from Ark and Dove have been faithfully serving the homeless families at Sarah’s House since 1992. Linda not only recruits helpers for the monthly meal service, she coordinates the menu and does the shopping. Linda is at home in the Sarah’s House kitchen, and upon arrival at the shelter she immediately sets out to prepare the popular meal. Linda loves seeing the smiling faces of the children, and feels it is her calling to serve the homeless at Sarah’s House and offer a hot meal and a smile of her own in return. Linda is a woman of deep faith who says she is inspired by the Parable of the Faithful Servant in the Gospel of Luke.

It is through the support and generosity of their neighbors that Sarah’s House has been a source of assistance and hope since 1987. As Anne Arundel County’s largest supportive housing provider, Sarah’s House assists homeless families through the provision of case management, transportation, employment services and child care programs. They serve approximately 125 clients, half of who are children, each day. The goal of these and all of Sarah’s House’s services is to maintain the family unit and promote their ability to complete together the journey to independence.

Lauren Latella

Lauren Latella is a senior at the Hun School of Princeton. As a freshman, she felt compelled to raise money for breast cancer research in memory of her aunt. She started putting together ribbon watches and selling them at craft fairs, in local gift shops, and to friends and relatives. Her community project, “Think Pink” has to date raised almost $15,000 for the cause. She has also organized friends every summer to raise additional money by their version of a walk-a-thon, entitled “Tubing for a Cause” which involved pledges for each hour spent tubing down the Delaware River.

Lauren is also a volunteer at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Bucks County, PA, giving more than 60 service hours every year. She was elected president of the school’s Community Service Club for a second year, and is instrumental in getting high school students involved in many projects in our community. She and a friend also organized and ran a peer tutoring program for the Hun’s middle school students for the past two years. Aside from all her volunteer work, Lauren is a highest honors student taking mostly AP courses, a peer leader, and the captain of the girls’ varsity tennis team.