Area firefighters receive gifts from Operation Gratitude

By Taylor Brown

tbrown@yourmvi.com

On or off duty, area fire departments always have each others’ backs. 

When Fallowfield Township Fire Company Capt. Josh Payne wrote a letter to a nationwide nonprofit organization that works to pay tribute to first responders and veterans, he was pleasantly surprised at the response he received.

Operation Gratitude is a volunteer-driven initiative initiated in 2003 to build better relationships between Americans and military and first responders through volunteer service projects, acts of gratitude and meaningful engagements in communities nationwide. 

Payne was told by the organization that he would be receiving care pouches not only for members of the fire company, but all companies within the Charleroi Fire District and some additional mutual aid companies as well.

Operation Gratitude sent its first four care packages to deployed service members in Iraq in 2003. Since then, the organization has given millions of Americans the opportunity to express appreciation through hands-on volunteerism while lifting the spirits of more than 1.8 million deployed troops and another 1.3 million recruit graduates, veterans, military families, first responders and health care heroes.

Each year, corporate partners and grateful citizens from across the country donate more than 15 million “wish list” and handmade items to fill the signature Operation Gratitude care packages. 

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