Thank you to the hundreds of volunteers who made our Memorial Day 2009 Soldiers' Angels collection drive and sort/pack event a huge success!
3,132 items were generously donated by volunteers across Los Angeles. These much needed items have been sent to wounded troops recuperating at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where President Obama made a visit on June 5, 2009. The donations included 1,874 socks (the most needed item), 280 t-shirts, 368 pairs of underwear, 41 sports bras, 10 gym shorts, 25 PJ tops and hoodies, 35 PJ bottoms and sweatpants, 45 phone cards, 16 blankets and pillows and 438 handwritten thank you letters and get well soon cards.
Ninety-two volunteers joined us on Saturday, May 30, 2009, at Culver Studios, which generously donated the space for this event, to sort, count and pack the donations. We were so overwhelmed by volunteers that the work went quickly, and folks then sat down at our letter-writing stations and composed all those heartfelt cards and letters to the troops, as well as to the doctors and staff at LRMC to thank them for all they do. Everyone who participated felt deeply gratified at helpling our wounded heroes, and really moved to see how many people pitched in so generously.
We would like to thank Culver Studios for giving us the space and total access to the lot to stage this event, which we couldn't have done without this gracious donation. We would also like to thank State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, State Senator Fran Pavley, U.S. Congresswoman Jane Harman and LA City Councilmembers Eric Garcetti, Herb Wesson, Bill Rosendahl and Janice Hahn for so generously opening their offices to us to serve as donation collection points, Many thanks to Penske for donating a truck so we could transport the donations to the shipping warehouse. And great thanks to Fedex as well for donating the packing bags.
We have already started planning this event on a much larger scale for Veteran's Day this November. We will be reaching out to volunteers to ask you to organize collections in your neighborhoods, schools and workplaces. If you'd like to volunteer for November's event, please email stacy@30barack.com.
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