SALISBURY, Md.--The non-profit organization 'Operation We Care' has been up and running since October of 2007, supporting entire military units at a time, as well as shipping care packages to individual addresses requested primarily by the Delmarva community--even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Founders Jeff and Diana Merritt said over the years they have received hundreds of volunteers, and even amid the Coronavirus pandemic, they've had to limit the amount who wish to show out. "We were doing it twice a year, and we'd gather...approximately 300 people and we'd pack a thousand to 1200 boxes all at once," said Jeff Merritt. "But the pandemic has caused us to reevaluate and redo things so now we're using smaller groups of people of 20 in a large room, and we'll pack a hundred boxes at a time." Jeff Merritt comes from a long history of family members partaking in the military. His older rother is a Vietnam veteran, his father a World War II veteran and his grandfather a World War I veteran--so he understands how much a little goes a long way. Since the pandemic began, the nonprofit has also delivered care packages with snacks and toiletries to first responders and frontline workers across Delmarva. "I just want to make sure that the staff at the hospitals know that we appreciate the work that they do and you know, the sacrifices that they make...they're having to work long hours, sometimes they're not able to go home, they have to work double shifts so we created these little boxes," he said. They've been doing that for a year now, meeting up with volunteers once or twice a month. Although their headquarters are in Salisbury, Maryland, at the Minuteman Press, they ship packages all over the world. "To ship the care packages is $19.65 per box to ship so you know in the grand scheme of things we spend about $40,000 a year last year at the post office," he said. Those overseas normally get their care package within two to three weeks of 'Operation We Care' shipping the items. Moreover, the couple said despite it being a process, the continuous gratitude is unmatched. "I just got an email from a unit yesterday that we sent boxes to and the day they got our care packages a couple of weeks ago, 16 of their troops were quarantined for COVID and so they got their boxes just at the right time," Jeff Merritt said. Diana Merritt also said receiving such positive feedback is one of her favorite parts about giving back. "When we get response from the recipients and you know, it's just made a huge boost to their day or even like, they didn't have any of the toiletry items, and it was just like great because they had you know, run out of toothpaste like two weeks ago or something," she said.
Click here to find out how you can donate/volunteer.
