BELLEVIEW, FL (352today.com) – Mary Harper knows a thing or two about sending young men and women to another country to fight for ours. She has five children and two sons-in-law who were deployed around the world. She spent a lot of time crying before pulling herself up by her bootstraps and organizing what is now known as Operation Shoebox back in 2003.
Mary found out from her son, Bobby, that there were guys and girls who didn’t have families or friends sending letters from home let alone care packages. “I was like a young buck ready to go,” Bobby said. “Then it was like ‘I’m very homesick.’ And then I lost communication with the family for six months during the war. And finally, when we were coming back after the war, I was finally able to get in contact with them.”
Bobby said that his family actually “adopted” one of his buddies who didn’t really have anyone. So, they became brothers “because that’s what you do,” he asserted.
“That’s what the military is about,” he said. “You become brothers and sisters and you protect each other, and you give your life for each other.”
Operation Shoebox has shipped nearly two million care packages over the course of 20 years with anywhere between four and 600 going out each week. Find out how you can volunteer, donate, or purchase/donate to their thrift shop.
Listen to my Homepage interview with Mary Harper and her son, Bobby, here.