Operation Gratitude is a nonprofit, volunteer-based organization that sends over 150,000 care packages to service members annually. Care packages delivered are comprised of hand-made items, snacks, hygiene products, and more.
In order to honor our service members this year for Veterans Day, the ACAMS Greater Twin Cities Chapter creatively came up with an idea to make paracord survival bracelets to ship to Operation Gratitude for distribution. Our board, chapter members and co-workers were all encouraged to become involved. We used donated and chapter funds to purchase paracord survival bracelet kits and we planned a full-day volunteer paracord bracelet assembly event.
Paracord bracelets are extremely important to service members because they can be used in an emergency to secure camouflage nets, secure shelter, make a sling or splint, create a harness, or for other purposes. The inner strands of the paracord bracelet can even be used as a fishing line or for emergency sutures. Operation Gratitude includes these bracelets in their care packages to deployed service members and to first responders.
We held our paracord bracelet assembly event on Thursday, November 5, and it was a success. We met our goal of assembling 500 bracelets that were then shipped to Operation Gratitude for distribution. A huge thank you to both Maria Dolor and Ashley Fink who volunteered their entire day to teach over 50 volunteers how to assemble the bracelets, order the supplies and complete our efforts with shipping in time to honor Veterans Day. In addition, another special thank you to the board and chapter members who contributed, and to U.S. Bank/RPS AML for hosting the event space.
To see how you can support our troops through Operation Gratitude, visit their website at: https://www.operationgratitude.com/