Even on a day (last Thursday) when the Dow Jones industrial average finished with a loss of 358 points with another surge in oil prices and warnings of trouble in financial, automotive and high-tech industries dogging the market, troops’ supporters donated more than $1 million for military care packages.
During an 8-hour Web telethon called “From the Frontlines,” people made donations to cover the costs of sending the largest single shipment of care packages for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
More than 50,000 care packages containing Jelly Bellies, lip balm, cookies, coffee, hand-held fans and other personal care items will be headed to the troops a few days before the Fourth of July.
“Clearly people are yearing for a way to support the American military. The economy be damned, people came together as a community online in a way that has never been done before,” said Melanie Morgan, who heads Move America Forward (www.moveamericanforward.org) the nonprofit that organized the drive.
The telethon was hosted by Morgan, and blogger, author and TV analyst, Michelle Malkin and included guests Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, retired Lt. Col. Oliver North, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, military families and others. President Bush and his wife, Laura, sent a letter of support that was read during the telethon.
The original fund-raising goal for the drive was set for $500,000. However, donations surpassed that amount in the first few hours of the telethon, Morgan said.
The telethon was broadcast by http://www.UStream.tv. It can be viewed on the Move American Forward Web site. The care packages will be shipped from Sacramento on July 2.
