Veterans United Home Loans and Operation Gratitude are giving care packages to people actively serving in the military, in time for Veterans Day on Nov. 11. They hosted a care packaging event on Thursday, Oct. 26 in Columbia. Veterans in the area were invited, along with around 350 VU employees to pack about 1000 care packages.
Operation Gratitude partners with volunteers to provide care packages to first responders and military personnel. Vicki Johnson is the director of national voluntarism.
“So the ones that we are packing today have chapstick, and then they have coffee from Starbucks, and then there is an entertainment item in there – I think there is a card game,” Johnson said. “There’s the knitted hat or scarf. There’s the handwritten letters.”
One of the veteran organizations that helped make the care packages is Veterans of Foreign Wars. Edward Miller, a veteran of Desert Storm and commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 280 in Columbia, received a care package while serving overseas.
“I was humbled when I got it because I wasn’t expecting it, so it was just a box of stuff that was put out and they had letters in there and different candies and other stuff that they sent over,” Miller said. “It was a pleasant surprise.”
Operation Gratitude partners with volunteers to provide care packages to first responders and military personnel.
More information about future care packaging opportunities is available at operationgratitude.com.