Since September 10th, 2010, Jennifer L. Fair and Renee Atkins have sent over 250 care packages to military personnel in hostile regions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Bahrain. These care packages contained an estimated value of $25,000 worth of requested toiletries, food, and morale items. This was all accomplished by savvy shopping, over ten thousand coupons, 8-10 hours each week of shopping preparation, and facilitated by a single woman, working part-time, and earning minimum-wage.
Operation Christmas Glory, Inc. (OCG) is a registered nonprofit in the State of Oregon, and is in the process of applying to be a 501(c)(3) organization. Financial donations are expected to be tax-deductible and are used to pay the costs of product at a price typically 95% off of retail value, as well as shipping. The postage cost alone is $12.95, and overall cost per care package is between $2-10. Total estimated value of all items in the package is $125. All costs of the program are currently covered by the Board of Directors, and there is focus on attaining Corporate Sponsors to donate products for the packages and Financial Sponsors to cover the costs of postage.
Our purpose is to provide the necessities that our troops may not have access to at Forward Operating Bases located overseas. A majority of care packages sent include personal hygiene items (deodorant, toothpaste, bodywash, and baby wipes). An occasional shipment of food packages is reserved for troops surviving on MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat, the prepackaged military-issue meals). An additional request by our troops is laundry detergent, which is reported as costing $50 for one box of generic detergent in Afghanistan. A few entertainment items are generally included in all care packages in order to lift morale.
In just four months, the individual efforts of one part-time cashier sending 1-2 care packages every other week grew to sending 30 care packages a month. OCG’s goal is to increase our efforts by ten times that amount by the end of 2012. OCG will continue for a long as the United States Military has a service member deployed anywhere in the world.
Click on the “Updates on Shipments” link on the left to follow current progress on Operation Christmas Glory, 2011.
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Current Sponsors:
King City Lions Club; Tony & Tina Slyter, Grocery Outlet
