Yankee Trails

01 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 The Villages ® Community yankeetrails.com | 352.633.4643 A s a mother of five brave service members, all serving overseas, Mary Harper would put to- gether care packages for her children from her home in Belleview, Florida. She quickly found that the items she sent were helpful to her children and their fellow soldiers on deployment, and Opera- tion Shoebox was born. Today, anywhere from 350 to 400 volunteers meet each week to put together care packages that are sent to troops all over the world. Operation Shoebox began in the year 2000, and quickly expanded into the Villages. Approximately 800 packages are put together and delivered every week from all Operation Shoebox locations; around the holidays the group assembles nearly five thou- sand packages to send to America's warriors. Camille Gieck currently serves as the Director and she has been part of Operation Shoebox since 2006. We had the opportunity to speak to Camille about how Operation Shoebox functions week in and week out… and it is quite the operation. Every week, volunteers get together at their assigned tables to put together care packages. Each table has a different responsibility – while one puts stationary into the care packages, another puts food and bath- ing products. There are even volunteers assigned to sewing – puppets for children, hats and even stock- ings around the holidays. The start of the "assembly line" takes a tote bag, puts their assigned item into the bag and then pass- es it on to the next table until the bag is full. Volun- teers crochet strings to tie each bag together, they are passed onto the postage table and prepared for shipment. Deciding where care packages are shipped depends on where the requests come in, but go all over the world. Operation Shoebox always adds a unique touch to their care packages through the hand-sewn prod- ucts, handwritten thank you notes, personalized holi- day cards and bracelets made out of cord that can be wrapped around packages to make them easier to carry. Volunteers even cut out stars to send to troops with a prayer attached. Operation Shoebox operates entirely by donation and holds several fundraisers each year. Fundraising activities arrange from Bingo, Chinese Auction, Soup for the Troops or coupons with restaurants where a portion of a bill goes towards Operation Shoebox. Visit operationshoebox.com to learn more and see how you can lend a helping hand Interested in having your group featured in our catalog? Contact Mike Rogers at mrogers@yankeetrails.com Operation Shoebox C L U B O F T H E M O N T H

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