There are a few places on this planet where I feel absolutely comfortable. One of them is the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, CA. I don\u2019t know what it is about that wonderful place, but my shyness and social awkwardness don\u2019t seem to exist there. It must be all the love. It\u2019s literally bursting from the seams in there.<\/p>\n
900,000!!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
If you\u2019re a regular on the blog then you know about\u00a0my love for Operation Gratitude. If you\u2019re a newbie then let me explain\u00a0what Operation Gratitude is\u00a0really quick. It\u2019s an organization started by Carolyn Blashek in the wake of 9\/11 and the wars in Iraq and\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0 When she tried to join the military and was told that she was above the age limit, she\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0stand by and do nothing so she started putting together care packages in her home. Those humble beginnings have grown into an Operation that has now sent more than\u00a0900,000 care packages\u00a0to troops deployed around the world. We have officially started our\u00a0March to a Million.<\/p>\n
Now a little background as to how I got involved. I\u2019m a\u00a0proud Navy Brat\u00a0and\u00a0sister of a Marine\u00a0and several years back I decided that I wanted to do something to support the military and their families. I collected a ton of unused Christmas cards and got everyone I know to write letters and notes in them. I collected more than a hundred and then realized that I had no idea where to send them. I started calling Army-Navy Recruiting Offices and finally a Soldier answered and told me about Operation Gratitude. I called the phone number he gave me and Carolyn answered. Turns out he had given me her home phone number. Carolyn was so warm and kind and told me where to drop the letters off. I asked her what else I could do and she told me about their upcoming Package Assembly Day. I never looked back. The 2nd\u00a0<\/sup>time I volunteered I was lucky enough to\u00a0pack the 350,000th<\/sup>\u00a0package, a moment that I will never forget for as long as I live. I told my Nerd BFF\u00a0Geek Outlaw\u00a0about it and he began joining me about a year after I started.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0volunteered many times since then, collected hundreds\u00a0more Christmas cards, and\u00a0learned to crochet\u00a0so that I could make scarves for the Winter Drive. It brings me more joy than I could ever express. Now that I\u2019m in San Diego and my schedule is insane, it\u2019s much harder to get up to Van Nuys but I drove up this past weekend for the last packing day of the year.<\/p>\n Photo by HNG fan Shaun<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I have a bad wrist so I like to get to the Armory early so that I can get a spot putting the items into the boxes. It also gives me a chance to talk to all of the people who walk around the assembly line and arrange the contents as we fill them. And I get to dance to the music which is not only fun, but makes it easier on my back. After saying hello and giving Carolyn a big hug, I settled into my spot along with\u00a0Geek Outlaw and his Dad. For the morning shift I was put in charge of the Oxy products and was dubbed the \u201czit girl.\u201d\u00a0 For the afternoon shift I was moved to another area of hygiene, toothpaste and dental floss.<\/p>\n Picture posted on facebook<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Right before we started for the day I posted a picture on the\u00a0facebook page\u00a0and invited anyone in the area to join us. Shaun saw that picture and, still reeling from the tragedy in Connecticut and his personal connection to it, decided that volunteering was exactly what he needed. That, and wearing a\u00a0red shirt\u00a0under his sweatshirt. He joined\u00a0Geek Outlaw\u00a0and I for the afternoon shift. It was awesome to hang out and chat with him, he now knows more about me than any other fan!<\/p>\n HNG and Shaun<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are always a\u00a0few celebrities\u00a0that show up and this year was no different.\u00a0 The first one who came by was Michael Reagan, oldest son of President Ronald Reagan, along with his wife and daughter.\u00a0I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0recognize him at first, but\u00a0Geek Outlaw\u2019s Dad\u00a0did and when I heard his name I perked right up. I asked him \u201cMichael, do you know Dean Minnerly?\u201d He looked surprised and said \u201cYes!!\u201d I told him that Dean was my step-dad and he\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0believe it. Each time he came around we chatted a little more. As I mentioned in\u00a0my interview with him, Dean was a Karate instructor prior to becoming a Foley Artist. Michael\u2019s son was one of his students and he used to hang out with the Reagan\u2019s and go out on their boat with them. They haven\u2019t been in contact for a number of years though. So I told Michael I was going to take his picture and text it to Dean. This is that picture.<\/p>\n Michael Reagan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dean was flabbergasted and asked if I could get Michael\u2019s contact info but by the time I got that message we were in the middle of the ceremony and Michael was\u00a0speaking to the crowd. He left right after and I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0see him again. So Michael, if you ever read this, Dean wants to reconnect with you.<\/p>\n The next celebrity to come by was\u00a0Erik Estrada\u00a0of\u00a0CHiPs<\/i>\u00a0fame along with at least ten\u00a0Playboy Bunnies.<\/p>\n HNG waiting for Erik and the Bunnies to catch up with the rest of the line<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He was so incredibly nice. You could tell that he really wanted to be there and was genuinely excited to meet and hang out with the Soldiers who were present.<\/p>\n HNG and Erik Estrada<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Joe Mantegna\u00a0was there along with at least fifteen other crew and production people from\u00a0Criminal Minds.<\/i>\u00a0Dean works on the\u00a0Law & Order<\/i>\u00a0shows so we exchanged a few joking jabs back and forth each time they made the rounds.<\/p>\n Geek Outlaw, Joe Mantegna, and HNG<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After lunch, Geek Outlaw, Shaun, and I reclaimed our spots on the Assembly Line.<\/p>\n \u201cMy spot!\u201d says Geek Outlaw<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A few minutes later Carolyn came up with a little boy named Charlie (that\u2019s him behind Geek Outlaw) and asked Geek Outlaw and I to watch him and show him the ropes. We\u2019re responsible adults so we said no problem! After chatting with him for a few minutes (seriously, he was so cute and sweet), Carolyn came back and told me \u201cBy the way, he\u2019s Jon Cryer\u2019s son.\u201d You probably know\u00a0Jon Cryer\u00a0best from\u00a0Two and a Half Men<\/i>.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0never seen that show so I know him as Duckie from\u00a0Pretty in Pink<\/i>. Jon was a client of my previous boss in LA so I had spoken to his wife before on the phone. The line started back up and the next thing I know, here comes Jon. I said \u201cHey Jon, we were put in charge of your kid, he\u2019s really cute.\u201d He smiled and said \u201cWell I certainly think so! I think I\u2019ll join you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n HNG and Jon Cryer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He took a place on the Line and was put in charge of the\u00a05 Hour Energy\u2019s. Having had that job before, I know how filthy your hands get, so I told him I had a hand wipe with his name on it once we stopped for the day. He was also really nice and even danced with me when \u201cStayin\u2019 Alive\u201d came on over the speakers. I told him who my old boss was and he got a big smile on his face and told me to tell him that he said hi, which I did. Tada! Two sets of old friends reconnected by me and Operation Gratitude. I was kind of on a roll that day.<\/p>\n Then, of course, there was Santa (Santa\u2019s a celebrity! \ud83d\ude09 )aka Supervisor Jack, the nicest man you will ever meet and a fantastic singer\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026and Captain Freedom\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026but the real celebrity that day was Spc. Samuel M. He was the\u00a0recipient of the 800,000th<\/sup>\u00a0care package; recently back from his latest deployment in Afghanistan.\u00a0The recipients of the milestone care packages always get a few extras. On Saturday Spc. M. was presented with a custom motorcycle made by Torque and\u00a0Orange County Choppers. I know absolutely nothing about motorcycles but even I knew that it was a special bike. It was really gorgeous.<\/p>\n Regardless of how you may feel about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the brave men and women of our military are the reason we have the freedoms that we do and they need to be supported by those of us back home who take advantage of those freedoms. You don\u2019t know their names but they are sacrificing and sometimes dying for you. The least we can do is send them a little piece of home. I\u2019m proud to have contributed to that effort in my own very small way.<\/p>\n Thanks again to Carolyn and the Blue Shirts for all that you do and for making Operation Gratitude feel like a home away from home.<\/p>\n To learn more and find out how you can help, visit the Operation Gratitude website\u00a0HERE<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are a few places on this planet where I feel absolutely comfortable. One of them is the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, CA. I don\u2019t know what it is about that wonderful place, but my shyness and social awkwardness don\u2019t seem to exist there. It must be all the love. It\u2019s literally bursting […]<\/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":[3,4],"tags":[161,178,221,306,360,442,504,515,641,721,752,1030],"class_list":["post-5899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrity","category-event","tag-carolyn-blashek","tag-chips","tag-criminal-minds","tag-erik-estrada","tag-geek-outlaw","tag-hot-nerd-girl","tag-joe-mantegna","tag-jon-cryer","tag-michael-reagan","tag-operation-gratitude","tag-playboybunnies","tag-two-and-a-half-men"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5899","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=5899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}