Our April 30th Pack Day went very smoothly thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers. We had 80 volunteers attend from all over the country to help us ship over 900 military flat rate boxes full of 11 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, hygiene items and food items for the Marines.
We held a raffle to raise money for the Leon B. Deraps Memorial Scholarship Run/Walk/Ride that Marine Parents staff will be participating in, and we collected a grand total of $421 in donations! Thank you to everyone who made a contribution to this fund.
After the packing we quickly transitioned our warehouse into space for our volunteer appreciation lunch. Awards were given to our distinguished volunteers, and all volunteers were recognized for their dedication to The Care Package Project™.
Our guest speaker, Navy Corpsman Tony Mena from Columbia, Missouri, gave a moving speech about the importance of troop support and how special he and his fellow troops would feel after receiving care packages from strangers. Afterwards he recited an original poem, which he had dedicated to his friend who was killed in Iraq. He then picked up his guitar and entertained everyone with some tunes, including a song he wrote and produced. Many were fighting back tears by the end of his performance. We thank Tony for joining us and giving us the opportunity to hear his story.
A Special Thank You to:
A special thank you goes out to the following companies, organizations and supporters who help make this possible:
Quest After School Program- Columbia, MO: 306 cards
Thompson Middle School Science Team 8-1, St. Charles, IL: 82 letters
Local Volunteers:
Rock Bridge High School students
Goedecke Construction
Joe Guffey at U.S. Post Office
Jeff James
Out-of-Town Attendees:
Thanks to those who traveled from the following states to volunteer with us: Kansas, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska, Arkansas and Michigan
