I covered this great story last year and we even did live reports from the packaging center at that time, the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys California. Here is an update of ‘OPERATION GRATITUDE‘…they do a fantastic job of supporting our troops. Also, I have included a photo I snapped last year while covering their story.

Over the Veteran’s Day Weekend, more than 800 volunteers kicked-off Operation Gratitude’s 5th Annual Holiday Drive to send care packages to deployed troops. With Christmas music blaring, employees from Target, Disney, Warner Brothers, Boeing, Time Warner Cable and the California Escrow Association joined Service Members, Veterans, church and temple groups, schools, scouts and hundreds of new and returning volunteers to assemble and ship an unprecendented 19,596 care packages, averaging a staggering 1900 packages per hour, and bringing our overall tally to: 278,947 care packages sent to our troops!

For more information on all Volunteer activities, visit their web site!

The group is an all-volunteer organization that sends care packages of items and letters addressed to individually named U.S. Service Members deployed in hostile overseas regions. Its mission is to lift morale, bring a smile to a service member’s face and to express to all troops the appreciation and support of the American people.