Operation We Care joins Shore Gives More for Giving Tuesday to support troops and first responders

SALISBURY, Md. – Giving Tuesday and the Shore Gives More campaign are less than two weeks away. Non-profits across the lower Shore are teaming up with the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore for the online giving event. Operation We Care is one of the non-profits participating this year.

The organization was started back in 2007 with a simple goal of sending care packages to troops that were deployed at the time.

“The immediate response we got from doing this was nothing less than overwhelming,” says Co-Founder Jeff Merritt.

Now about to start their 18th year, the group sends around 2500 care packages a year. Operation We Care has also expanded to support first responders locally, but their largest expense is postage spending about $40,000 annually to ship overseas.

“We survive on financial donations, donations of supplies of things, and in our case it’s the things that we fill the care packages with, and then there’s an opportunity to volunteer time as well,” Merritt explains.

He says they try to fill every request that comes their way. “We do two big events a year, May and November, but we do smaller events in between because, for example, we just got done with our November packing for the holidays but if somebody sends us an address next week, we’re not going to make them wait until May.”

Merritt tells us he’s always grateful for the community support they receive, and they hope Giving Tuesday will be no different.

For information on Operation We Care check out their website here. You can find their Shore Gives More fundraising page here.