September 9 is National Teddy Bear Day, and I wanted to share a few stories that demonstrate Operation Gratitude’s Battalion Buddies are much more than just stuffed bears — and give you an opportunity to bring smiles to thousands of military children whose parents will be deployed this September 11th.

This week we launched the Clear Your Stash Challenge, and it is the perfect time to tell you about some of our knitting and crocheting champions who have impacted thousands of lives since our Handmade With Love program started in 2007 with Scarves for Troops. One such champion is Diane, who posted this photo of herself a few weeks ago on our OG in Action Facebook Group. With her most recent donation of 360 scarves, her lifetime total is now 5,577 scarves with accompanying thank you notes on all of them! I know her actions were not only admired by our growing community of volunteers but also inspired others to do more.

All too often, I’ve heard people who have never volunteered with Operation Gratitude say that we “just send care packages.” As the CEO, it is my job to change that perception by demonstrating and communicating the true impact we make as an organization, so they ultimately join our movement, too.