National Day of Service Please Donate!

NATIONAL DAY OF SERVICE

The September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance was formally established in 2009 under federal law as a constructive way to forever honor those who were lost in the tragedy, the sacrifices made by many others, and to remember the remarkable way people throughout the United States and in many other nations came together under a spirit of unity, compassion, and service in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

We will be presenting lessons this week in the hopes that many students will gain renewed appreciation for the diverse communities in which they live; cultivate a deeper understanding of those who may be different from them; and develop a greater sense of service and compassion in their daily lives.

The goal of the 9/11 National Day of Service program is for students to adopt a charity or cause that they can support personally or as a group. We have decided to adopt as our charity Operation Gratitude. Tens of thousands of American Service Members are deployed in hostile and remote regions of the world, including the Middle East, Afghanistan, and on ships throughout international waters. The physical conditions they must endure are difficult and they may be separated from loved ones for long periods of time.

Operation Gratitude seeks to lift morale and put smiles on faces by sending care packages addressed to individual Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines deployed in harm's way. Operation Gratitude care packages contain food, hygiene products, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation, all wrapped with good wishes of love and support. Through Collection Drives, Letter Writing Campaigns and Donations of funds for shipping expenses, Operation Gratitude provides civilians anywhere in America a way to express their respect and appreciation to the men and women of the U.S. Military in an active, hands-on manner. Operation Gratitude is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, volunteer-based corporation, funded entirely by private donations. For safety and security, the assembling of all packages occurs at the Army National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, California.

Our class will be contributing to this cause in several ways. Since Operation Gratitude strives to include several personal letters in every package that they send, we will be writing personal letters to the troops, as well as taking financial donation towards the cost of shipping care packages to our soldiers. The shipping cost of each package is $15.00. We will be collecting donations starting September 7th and ending November 31st. We have set our goal to be $750.00 (that’s enough to send 50 packages). Please help support our cause in any manner you can.