EVEN THE RARE Los Angeles rain and chilly temperatures could not dampen the spirits and pride of the many members of various film and TV companies who joined forces with hundreds of volunteers to show their love and support for our country’s troops overseas in Operation Gratitude. And last Saturday, it was indeed one of the most gracious, heartfelt operations of gratitude I have ever experienced. According to the program’s mission on its website, “Operation Gratitude seeks to lift morale and put smiles on faces by sending care packages addressed to individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines deployed overseas.” The destination for these packages is the hands and hearts of tens of thousand of Americans serving our nation in hostile and remote regions of the world, including the Middle East, Afghanistan and on sips throughout international waters. The Hollywood community was represented by scores of volunteers from the Producers Guild of America, NBC Universal and The Walt Disney Company whose team wore “Disney Voluntears” t-shirts.

In order to reach the goal of preparing 60,000 care packages to be sent via US Priority mail, an assembly line of great organization and precision was designed and implemented. Through the generosity of companies like Target, Chapstick, Emergen-C, Warner Bros. Records, Best Buy, Coppertone, Simply Gargle, Hallmark Cards and many others, volunteers snaked a line for approximately 15 minutes before clutching two medium-sized Priority Mail boxes and going through an elaborate assembly line to have each box filled. The bulkier items were placed first including movies on DVD, music CDs and video games from Wii and Xbox. For the element of surprise, there was a procedure to alternate what was being placed in the box – a mix and match of items so that each recipient could share later on. The Girl Scouts supplied thousands of boxes of cookies and each package received one. Next up was a generous amount of hygienic, food and nutritional products including lip balm, deodorant, shampoo, energy and immune systems boosters, sunscreen, healthy snacks, coffee, hand warmers and mouthwash. With beaming smiles, a lot of gratitude and a little irony, fiancées of several servicemen handed out the mouthwash; they seemed to be the most vocally outgoing of the assembly line workers. Mini-stuffed animals were alternately placed in boxes and as each box reached its capacity, handfuls of candy, gum and chocolate were tossed in and finally capped with wool hat or pair of gloves or sox. Emotions peaked at this moment as the box seemed to get more personal with the addition of each item designed to keep its recipient warm in many ways than one. The package was handed over to a series of volunteers who used machines that sealed the box, flipping it over once to seal the other side. Pre-printed labels were added only to be covered by hand-written labels. As I scanned the thousands of boxes put on huge shipping carts, names like Tara, Robert, Joe Ernesto and Sarah appeared. Who are these brave people? How are their families coping? And can they all feel the gratitude with this token of appreciation?

For more information on Operation Gratitude, go to www.opgratitude. com