{"id":515,"date":"2010-12-15T11:04:55","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T19:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hotnerdgirl.wordpress.com\/?p=515"},"modified":"2024-02-27T09:44:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T09:44:43","slug":"help-a-soldier-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/2010\/12\/15\/help-a-soldier-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Help a Soldier out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of being a socially responsible nerd is giving back to the community.\u00a0 I\u2019m big on helping people, whether it\u2019s defending someone who\u2019s being picked on or giving food to the less fortunate. \u00a0This is, of course, a recurring theme in my favorite sci-fi franchise, Star Trek\u2026working towards the betterment of mankind.<\/p>\n

While we\u2019re not to the point of getting rid of currency quite yet, there are many ways that we can help out our fellow homo sapiens.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned in the past that I come from a long line of military personnel, dating all the way back to the Civil War.\u00a0 I\u2019m extremely proud of this.\u00a0 My brother and cousin are currently active in the US military and have both been deployed overseas. Looking for ways to do my part, about 4 years ago I became involved in an amazing organization called Operation Gratitude.<\/a> We pack care packages and mail them around the world to those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marine\u2019s that are in harm\u2019s way.\u00a0 It\u2019s a small but powerful way to say Thank You for risking your lives to protect ours.\u00a0 For many of these men and women it will be the only package or piece of mail they receive.\u00a0 The thank you letters we get back from them will break your heart.<\/p>\n

With founder Carolyn after packing # 350,000<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Collecting and donating old electronics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few years ago I was lucky enough to pack the 350,000th <\/sup>package.\u00a0 This past weekend we packed our 600,000th<\/sup>.\u00a0 That is no small feat my fellow nerds and nerdettes.\u00a0 Every single item in every package is donated and every volunteer works for free so every single penny raised goes towards shipping costs.\u00a0 When I started volunteering the cost to ship a package was $10, today it costs $15.<\/p>\n

600,000th care package!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, in the spirit of the holiday season, I\u2019m opening the donation page back up for anyone who would like to donate to Operation Gratitude.\u00a0 It will stay up at the top of the blog indefinitely.\u00a0 All of it will go directly to the organization.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have money but you still want to help, there are many ways to do so.\u00a0 I also crochet scarves that go into every package.\u00a0 Collecting those old beanie babies everyone had but no longer wants is great too.\u00a0 Hand written letters are always needed.\u00a0 Or you could come and stare at my boobs the whole time like the guy in the Marvel Comics t-shirt did.\u00a0 Veteran’s need love too, so there are various ways to help them out as well.\u00a0 Go to the \u201cGet Involved\u201d section of the Operation Gratitude website for a ton of great ideas.<\/p>\n

You can also buy products from those who donate a percentage of their profits to Operation Gratitude.\u00a0 There is a list of them here.<\/p>\n

My favorite of which is my friend Hayden\u2019s company, Active Country (you\u2019ve seen Hayden on here a few times, he\u2019s kick ass).\u00a0 He donates 5% of all his profits to Operation Gratitude and presented them with a check this past Saturday.\u00a0 You can find his company here.<\/p>\n

Hot Nerd Girl with Hayden and his Grandma<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If Operation Gratitude isn\u2019t your thing, find some other way to give back.\u00a0 Something you feel passionate about.\u00a0 Pay it forward!<\/p>\n

Ok, I\u2019ll get off my soapbox now \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Here are some pictures from this past Saturday:<\/p>\n

I don't let gimpy-ness get in the way of do-gooding<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
H-Dogg packing heating pads<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The assembly line. I packed toe warmers and chapstick.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Over 2000 volunteers showed up, a new record!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Superheroes were on hand to help<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Tall people come in handy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
Grandma getting serenaded by Jack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Setting up with Christian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of being a socially responsible nerd is giving back to the community.\u00a0 I\u2019m big on helping people, whether it\u2019s defending someone who\u2019s being picked on or giving food to the less fortunate. \u00a0This is, of course, a recurring theme in my favorite sci-fi franchise, Star Trek\u2026working towards the betterment of mankind. While we\u2019re not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[53,78,442,616,679,721],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","tag-air-force","tag-army","tag-hot-nerd-girl","tag-marines","tag-navy","tag-operation-gratitude"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}