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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview with Carolyn Blashek

Aired November 08, 2003 - 09:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: You know, you don't have to be in the military to serve the country. Carolyn Blashek was motivated to enlist after the attacks of 9/11, but she was told that she was too old. Well, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Blashek found another way to serve, one that is doing a lot more good than she might have imagined.
Carolyn Blashek join us now live from Encino, California, to talk more about what she is doing with Operation Gratitude.

And Carolyn, great to have you with us this morning.

CAROLYN BLASHEK, OPGRATITUDE.COM (on phone): Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

ROBERTS: OK, so it's called Operation Gratitude. But let's explain to everybody, what is this?

BLASHEK: What this is, is, is a way for the American public and for me personally to show our support and appreciation for the troops by sending care packages to them. And the care packages have a whole assortment of items, snacks, entertainment, things like DVDs, CDs, books, cameras, games, phone cards, et cetera.

And it's really just a way of saying, We're still thinking about you. We appreciate what you're doing for us. We recognize that you've taken an oath to lay down your life for us, and we are going to thank you and never forget you.

ROBERTS: And Carolyn, just so everybody knows about this, you first went to go enlist after the 9/11 attacks, but were turned away because of age. But then there was another reason that you were also inspired to do this. Will you tell us?

BLASHEK: Right. Well, what I did do instead was, I found our local USO facility and started volunteering there one and then two days a week.

And one day I was in there by myself, and a senior enlisted came in asking to speak with the chaplain. And I said, Well, there's not one available, but let me get on the phone and get one here as soon as possible. He said, No, my plane is leaving in a few minutes. I need to just speak with you. And I said, Of course.

And we sat down, and he said, Look, I'm returning overseas from burying my mother. My wife left me several years ago, and my only son died as an infant. And he said, quote, "I don't think I'll make it back, but it really doesn't matter, because no one would care anyway."

And that moment, I realized how critical it is for soldiers in harm's way to really believe that people at home care about them. They're facing hard (ph), they're facing fears, and they need strength to get them home.

ROBERTS: Well, I'm sure receiving your care package certainly brightens their day. So let's talk about what you're currently working on right now for the holidays. You have a pretty aggressive campaign going on.

BLASHEK: Right, we really do. Well, up until this point, I've sent 650 packages, on a -- doing it on a weekly basis. This weekend, I'm working with the California Army National Guard 746th Battalion to assemble over 3,000 packages all at once for the holidays that we're going to be sending out next week.

And, in fact, people who are local to our area here in Southern California are welcome to join us on Sunday, tomorrow, to actually help us put the packages together. And then today we're -- the Guardsmen and some of our local Scout troops are doing some fundraising activities at the facility, like a car wash and a barbecue, and some of our local personalities are coming out to do autographs and all, just really as kind of a support-the-troops rally.

ROBERTS: Carolyn, we're almost out of time, but real quickly, for those of us that are inspired by you, and I am, what can we do to help?

BLASHEK: Well, the best thing to do right now is to go to the Web site, which is www.opgratitude -- that's O-P as in Peter, gratitude.com. And there's a whole list of things you can do on there, ranging from collect -- local collection drives to letter writing, and unfortunately, most importantly, to make donations, financial donations.

This is a very, as you say, aggressive but also a very expensive undertaking, because every holiday package costs from $15 to $20 just in postage.

ROBERTS: Carolyn, last but not least, but does the soldier that inspired you to go ahead and do all this know the effort that you put behind this, know he was really a catalyst to do some good?

BLASHEK: Oh, I have no idea. I have no idea. I have no idea. I hope he knows.

ROBERTS: Well, I hope he finds out. And we wish you good luck and a happy holiday season, with all the efforts to get these 3,000 care packages sent off.

Carolyn Blashek, joining us from Encino, California, this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 8, 2003 - 09:24   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: You know, you don't have to be in the military to serve the country. Carolyn Blashek was motivated to enlist after the attacks of 9/11, but she was told that she was too old. Well, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Blashek found another way to serve, one that is doing a lot more good than she might have imagined.
Carolyn Blashek join us now live from Encino, California, to talk more about what she is doing with Operation Gratitude.

And Carolyn, great to have you with us this morning.

CAROLYN BLASHEK, OPGRATITUDE.COM (on phone): Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

ROBERTS: OK, so it's called Operation Gratitude. But let's explain to everybody, what is this?

BLASHEK: What this is, is, is a way for the American public and for me personally to show our support and appreciation for the troops by sending care packages to them. And the care packages have a whole assortment of items, snacks, entertainment, things like DVDs, CDs, books, cameras, games, phone cards, et cetera.

And it's really just a way of saying, We're still thinking about you. We appreciate what you're doing for us. We recognize that you've taken an oath to lay down your life for us, and we are going to thank you and never forget you.

ROBERTS: And Carolyn, just so everybody knows about this, you first went to go enlist after the 9/11 attacks, but were turned away because of age. But then there was another reason that you were also inspired to do this. Will you tell us?

BLASHEK: Right. Well, what I did do instead was, I found our local USO facility and started volunteering there one and then two days a week.

And one day I was in there by myself, and a senior enlisted came in asking to speak with the chaplain. And I said, Well, there's not one available, but let me get on the phone and get one here as soon as possible. He said, No, my plane is leaving in a few minutes. I need to just speak with you. And I said, Of course.

And we sat down, and he said, Look, I'm returning overseas from burying my mother. My wife left me several years ago, and my only son died as an infant. And he said, quote, "I don't think I'll make it back, but it really doesn't matter, because no one would care anyway."

And that moment, I realized how critical it is for soldiers in harm's way to really believe that people at home care about them. They're facing hard (ph), they're facing fears, and they need strength to get them home.

ROBERTS: Well, I'm sure receiving your care package certainly brightens their day. So let's talk about what you're currently working on right now for the holidays. You have a pretty aggressive campaign going on.

BLASHEK: Right, we really do. Well, up until this point, I've sent 650 packages, on a -- doing it on a weekly basis. This weekend, I'm working with the California Army National Guard 746th Battalion to assemble over 3,000 packages all at once for the holidays that we're going to be sending out next week.

And, in fact, people who are local to our area here in Southern California are welcome to join us on Sunday, tomorrow, to actually help us put the packages together. And then today we're -- the Guardsmen and some of our local Scout troops are doing some fundraising activities at the facility, like a car wash and a barbecue, and some of our local personalities are coming out to do autographs and all, just really as kind of a support-the-troops rally.

ROBERTS: Carolyn, we're almost out of time, but real quickly, for those of us that are inspired by you, and I am, what can we do to help?

BLASHEK: Well, the best thing to do right now is to go to the Web site, which is www.opgratitude -- that's O-P as in Peter, gratitude.com. And there's a whole list of things you can do on there, ranging from collect -- local collection drives to letter writing, and unfortunately, most importantly, to make donations, financial donations.

This is a very, as you say, aggressive but also a very expensive undertaking, because every holiday package costs from $15 to $20 just in postage.

ROBERTS: Carolyn, last but not least, but does the soldier that inspired you to go ahead and do all this know the effort that you put behind this, know he was really a catalyst to do some good?

BLASHEK: Oh, I have no idea. I have no idea. I have no idea. I hope he knows.

ROBERTS: Well, I hope he finds out. And we wish you good luck and a happy holiday season, with all the efforts to get these 3,000 care packages sent off.

Carolyn Blashek, joining us from Encino, California, this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com