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Ventura County Non-Profit Sends More Than 200,000 Gift Boxes To Troops Overseas

A store space in a Simi Valley shopping center is packed with people filling boxes with everything from candy to socks. Volunteers are making up care packages going to men and women in uniform around the world. 

With the help of hundreds of volunteers and donors, the non-profit "For The Troops" sends out some 1800 care packages a month, and over 200,000 over the years.

Paula Cornell sent that first package overseas in 2005. In 2006, she co-founded the non-profit group “For The Troops”. 

Jim Carpenter is a Navy veteran who served in the Vietnam War. He’s been a “For The Troops” volunteer for several years now. Carpenter says it’s a great way to let those in the military know we care about them.

Ernie Medrano of Moorpark is one of the non-profit’s most amazing volunteers. He’s a 92 year old World War II veteran. Medrano volunteers with “For The Troops” three days a week.

“For The Troops” is doing its largest annual community event this coming weekend. The Saturday night concert and dinner at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library will pay tribute two nearly two dozen veterans, including nearly a dozen each from World War Two, and the Korean War.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.