SHARPTOWN, Md. - Veterans Day may have been on Friday, but on Sunday people all across the Eastern Shore are sending a gift to America's heroes just in time for the holidays. Operation We Care is packing up a taste of home and sending it overseas to the men and women serving our country. The community stepped up to fill 300 boxes for local troops. It's a thank you for their service and a chance to let them know they're being thought of. "A lot of people here either have someone in the military or they know somebody," said Jeff Merritt, who started Operation We Care four years ago. "So we just came up with this project and it's a way for everyone to jump on and give back when they can."
When troops open the box up it's an instant morale boost. "When we got a package it was like Christmas morning," said Sgt. Richard Hitchens, who received boxes in 2009 during a tour in Iraq with the Delaware Army National Guard. "We were like a bunch of kids, everybody was like hey look what I got, hey look what I got."
It's basic necessities like toilet paper, toothpaste and snacks. Items not always provided by the military. "They need these things desperately and they're tickled to death when they get a box from home," said Carolyn Tyndall from Laurel, Delaware.
A box that doesn't cost much, but what's packed inside is priceless. The boxes will be shipped out this week and are expected to be delivered by the beginning of December.
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