| Friends~
Last year, an Operation Gratitude package cost $10 to send....$10 to tell an American Hero in combat that we were thinking of him and appreciated his sacrifice.
This year, two postal increases later, that same package now costs us $11.00 to send. The single $1.00 per package increase may not seem terribly significant. But... $600,000 last year sent 60,000 packages; this year that same amount of money means 6,000 of our troops won't have a package to open for the holidays.
 But YOU can change that with the 'Power of One.' Each single dollar you add to your donation allows us to send one more package....which means one less brave warrior will be disappointed.
Lest you think a single dollar won't make a difference......Please Read On.
Testimony to the 'Power of One'
No one paid particular attention when the plain brown carton filled with assorted items arrived at the armory. It was another of the many generous donations Operation Gratitude receives from individuals and companies anxious to demonstrate their support for the men and women defending our country.
On Assembly Day, the item was placed in a care package along with the DVD, foot powder, flash drive, candy, hand warmers and 50 other products. No one gave it a special thought as volunteers assembled each box and focused on telling our brave warriors, far from home during the Holidays, that they were not forgotten.
The care package in which it was placed moved along the assembly line and looked like any other of the 8000 packages completed that day. No one knew the addressee to whom it would be shipped. The item was not inside a particularly special or milestone package. Everyone who touched the contents of the package simply hoped it would be special to the recipient.
The package sat with all the others on a pallet, outside the Armory awaiting shipment to the Post Office and then on to the particular individual serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
No one could have known that particular package would be special.
No one knew it would serve as a symbol of something much larger. After all, it was just one of many.
But destiny had greater plans.
In fact, it was more than two months before its special nature was revealed in an email received by Operation Gratitude. We get many notes of thanks-- all very much appreciated. Most of the notes, ironically, thank us for being the heroes, for taking the time to do something so special for total strangers.
This email, however, was different. The Soldier told us he figured that we might have felt a bit silly as we packed Beanie Babies in our care packages and probably wondered how they could be of value to a Soldier in a combat zone.
It turns out he was the person who received that one special package that included the Beanie Baby with the special destiny. 
He wrote:
"We gave that Beanie Baby to an Iraqi child who then gave us a tip. He told us that bad people were making bombs in his neighborhood. The information he gave us led to a major terrorist cell being captured and countless lives, American and Iraqi, being saved."
One Beanie Baby, one package, one thoughtful donation allowed one more American son or daughter, father or mother, sister or brother, to come home. And that one symbolic item of kindness ensured that an Iraqi family could witness their child growing up.
Let's use that 'Power of One' again and make certain every single Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine and Coast Guardsman knows that each ONE of us supports each ONE of them.
DONATE TODAY
Please ensure that we can send 60,000 care packages between now and New Year's. We must raise $660,000 to do so.  Your tax deductible donation of:
$ 11 will send another care package.
$110 will send 10 packages.
$550 would boost the morale of 50 service members during an otherwise very difficult time away from home, and just might...save many lives.
You may never know the impact of each one of your packages.
But you do know that every package will make a difference to one Warrior.
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