OPERATION GRADITUDE - Saying "Thank You" to all Who Serve

Dear Friends,

My many thanks for all of your hard work during the past year. You propelled Operation Gratitude to achieve new records of success!

YEAR IN REVIEW

In 2015, we sent 214,453 care packages to Deployed Troops, New Recruits, Veterans, First Responders and Military Families.  This is the largest number of packages ever sent in one year!

We were able to accomplish this through the efforts of you and 24,445 additional volunteers across the country who hosted collection drives, wrote letters, assembled care kits, and spent hours making handmade scarves, hats, and paracord bracelets.

2016 & A NEW ADDRESS

In 2016, Operation Gratitude will celebrate its 13th year of service.  The need to express our appreciation to all who serve is just as important today as it was to the first group of Troops who received our packages back in 2003.

For example, here is a message that we received last week from a group of Sailors:

"Thank you for sending us all these care packages! They truly mean a lot. We are currently on deployment during the Holidays. Sailors who volunteered to protect our freedom and our way of life...who watch their kids grow up through pictures and videos, missing all their family moments and the memories they are making without them.  Additionally, our Single Sailors don't have anyone back home or anyone sending them gifts.  Your care packages show them and all of us  that there are people back home in the states who appreciate and support us."

We are forever grateful to the California National Guard for their hospitality the past 12+ years. Now, the expansion of our care package programs, and the additional products and volunteers required to fill those boxes, have created an urgent need for a new home to accommodate our current and future operations.

I am happy to report that we have entered into a short-term lease on a building in Chatsworth, California, a few miles from our previous site. This temporary location will allow us to continue our important mission, and grow in ways that we are only beginning to imagine.

This 35,000 square foot building will allow us to bring all of our volunteers, programs and inventory under one roof for the first time in our 13 years of operation!  We are calling the building:  Forward Operating Base Operation Gratitude, or "The FOB" for short!

Here is our new address for your letters of support and your product donations (all still greatly needed!):

Operation Gratitude

21100 Lassen Street

Chatsworth, CA 91311

Please continue to use our Post Office Box address for all financial donations:

Operation Gratitude

P.O. Box 260257

Encino, CA 91426-0257

MOVING FORWARD

Over the next few months, we will share with you our progress towards securing a permanent home for Operation Gratitude, and the campaign that has been launched to make this dream a reality.

I am very excited about this next step in our organization's history, and hope you will join me on this extraordinary journey!

Thank you again for your devotion to Operation Gratitude.  Your efforts and generosity have enabled us to send 1,404,138 care packages...and counting... to all our heroes who serve.

YOU are making an impact.

Here's to a safe, healthy and fulfilling 2016 to all!