Mail Call

Deployed Troops

Dear Operation Gratitude Team,

My name is Chief J.M., and I serve aboard the USS ROSS, in Rota Spain.

The ship received your Gratitude packages today (Thursday, March 19th 2020), and I can safely say, we are the ones who are grateful. We just returned from a tough deployment, and we went straight into mandatory quarantine measures here in Spain due to COVID-19.

Your packages were a ray of sunshine to the crew and myself. Thank you for your efforts to brighten the everyday lives of myself and sailors everywhere.

A heartfelt thank you, from my family to yours.

I am an airman of the United States Navy, aboard the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT. I'm currently quarantined due to COVID-19 in Guam.

On April 25, I received a package containing appreciation letters. I just wanted to say thank you for the support and the letters. Nowadays, with COVID-19 spreading, the only human interactions I have are with my fiance and mother. So hearing from others who appreciate me and what I do is really nice.

Thank you so much for the prayers and wishes.

With much appreciation,

National Guard

We cannot thank you enough for the generosity, it was overwhelming to see the creativity and thoughtfulness put in some of those letters and all the personal hygiene and comfort treats were exceptional, honestly.

As the Division Chief, I have the privilege of seeing a lot of very special projects come through the State and Operation Gratitude really has been just top-notch. MSG Davis and I thank you personally and from the bottom of our hearts, and on behalf of the Louisiana National Guard, we are appreciative of your generosity.

Be well, and if there is anything we can do for you moving forward please let us know!

Police Departments

We didn’t let the Officers know about our Care Package from Operation Gratitude until the day it was delivered. We wanted it to be a special surprise for them.

I have to say your organization went above and beyond. The Officers appreciated everything you sent. Especially the handwritten letters, they were amazing! I sent thank you letters to those who put their emails on their cards.

During these scary and uncertain times, being able to read the beautiful messages that people, from all over the United States took the time to write, was wonderful. What your organization does is so thoughtful. It allows the Officers to see that there are so many people out there that truly appreciate what they do and what they go through as they protect and serve.

We thank you Katie, along with Operation Gratitude, your generous partners, donors, volunteers and everyone who has a hand in making First Responders, the Military and our Veterans feel appreciated.

There are no words that can be used to say how thankful we are for Operation Gratitude.

We have distributed some of the items thus far and I can say that the smiles and excitement of grown men and women here made it felt like Christmas Day (even in the middle of a Pandemic).

We are indebted to your organization, our public information officer is going to post a picture that we took with your banner onto our Instagram soon. Thanks again for all of the items, your staff members were very nice and extremely professional. You guys are truly a world-class organization.

Fire Departments & EMS

Just wanted to share our gratitude with you and the organization and say a huge thank you to the team at Operation Gratitude from Los Angeles Fire Department Fire Station 90.

As you know everyone everywhere has been touched to some degree by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here at the station level we are dealing with it first hand and are in need of decontamination materials.

I placed one phone call to Stacey, and with her help along with Kim and Luis, you all set us up with much-needed hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes which are in short supply everywhere.

As simple as it may sound these items are critical in helping stop the spread of the virus and helping keep our station sterile which in turn means that fewer of us get exposed and are able to stay here at work in a clean and healthy environment. It also means that we are limiting what we are exposing all of our family members to when we leave the station and go home.

I personally can’t thank you guys enough for always being willing to do whatever it takes to meet the needs of the first responder community and I know that all the members here at Fire Station 90 echo my sentiments.

I wish you all good health and look forward to seeing you at the next assembly day sometime in the near future.

Healthcare Heroes

On behalf of the entire Franciscan Medical Group team, I am writing to express our sincere thanks for the fantastic care packages you donated to our team of nearly 2,000 employees and 1,000 physicians/advanced practice clinicians.

Your generous gifts came as an incredible surprise and true acknowledgment of the many long hours our healthcare heroes have given in support of our communities.

This situation has been overwhelming and exhausting for all of us, and an unexpected, magnificent gesture from Operation Gratitude was received with great enthusiasm and appreciation.

I have attached several photos of our team members; despite the masks, you can still “see” their smiles!

Warm Regards,

On behalf of the entire Baylor University Medical Center care team, I would like to extend to you and the entire Operation Gratitude team my most sincere thanks.

As I know you realize, the team members serving the direct care needs of these critically ill COVID patients suit up and show up every day, “it’s our job” they say, with no expectation of anything in return.

Your generosity, and that of so many others, lets them know that what they do every day during this crisis IS a big deal, that others see this, and want to lift them up.

Thanks for helping them as they help others.

With appreciation,

Military Families

My husband is deployed and my daughter (who is 5) is struggling intensely with his absence. He is her hero and her very best friend and service is so spotty she can’t even talk to him. Today she got a package with a note and a little bear. It broke my heart to see her so overwhelmed by it.

She completely left her dinner, went straight to bed and snuggled “daddy” all night. This morning she sat him in her daddy’s seat and chatted to him at breakfast just like he was there.

Thank you for this small but substantial blessing. This really is so hard, and I’m just glad someone else understands.

With gratitude from a mother’s heart,

I wanted to reach out and thank you for attending the 1BCT Devil Day event and for your Battalion Buddy donation.

My seven year old has struggled with her dad leaving unexpectedly, especially at night, and she hasn’t let go of the bear since she received it.

The volunteer we spoke with was so friendly and welcoming and took the time to speak with her and to thank my husband for his service while telling us about his son’s experience.

The entire event was wonderful, but the bear was definitely the best part for my child. Thank you to your team and all of your volunteers for all that you do.

We appreciate it so much.

Veterans

Thank you, everyone, for putting these care packages together!

They mean so much to veterans, especially the ones without a safe place to lay their heads at night. Your gratitude is especially important to the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guard, and civilians currently working to maintain our freedom and way of life.

Keep up the great work, and continue to do amazing things!

Our Veterans receive their packages at dinner the first night we were in Falls Church, VA.

They were thrilled to get such a lovely collection of items. It was like Christmas in October!

This is a wonderful thing that you do and we are honored to partner with such a great organization. Our trip was a great success.

One of our Veterans said, “You grit your teeth and take a deep breath when you go into war. I have finally exhaled!”

Wounded Heroes & Caregivers

Hello everyone with Operation Gratitude.

I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of my veteran for the package.

The package was a morale booster for him and for our family. It came just in time as our son was leaving to go abroad and we enjoyed the goodies while watching tv and spending time with him. It also gave our son and veteran something to talk about and bring them closer together.

Thank you from a caregiver/spouse

These boxes always seem to bring so much happiness when someone needs it the most—sometimes you just send these out and have no idea how much it means to the people receiving them.

Please know these boxes mean the world to the person and make more of a difference then you know. A horrible few weeks and then there is a box and a smile crosses the face of someone who has not smiled in such a long time.

Thank you all at Operation Gratitude ♥️