Ocean Pines volunteers continue tradition with successful donation drive

(Oct. 29, 2020) Local volunteers this week wrapped up a hugely successful donation drive to help U.S. soldiers serving overseas.  

Organizer Barbara Peletier said longtime Ocean Pines resident Anna Foultz was the inspiration for the collection. Foultz, who passed away last year, started the drive with her husband, Carl, and their Star Charities nonprofit.  

This year, a small group of volunteers set up in the Ocean Pines Community Center parking lot and gathered items over four Wednesdays in October. Donations included toiletries and nonperishable food, cards and books, and many other items.  

Volunteers worked with Salisbury-based nonprofit Operation We Care, which will package and ship the goods in time for a holiday delivery to U.S. soldiers abroad.  

Peletier penned the following thank-you note to the local community: 

“Thanks to the generous people of Ocean Pines and Ocean City, we were able to keep alive Anna’s dream of supporting our deployed military during the Holidays. With the assistance of Larry Walton (AARP) and Candy Foreman (Kiwanis), Operation We Care was a huge success. 

“Also assisting was Sharon Hilty, who collected donations in Ocean City in remembrance of her son, Sfc. John-David Hilty. 

“All donations will be boxed and shipped in time for the holidays. If Anna was with us, she would say ‘thank you and God bless.’” 

In total, Peletier said volunteers collected five carloads of donations, including a big final day on Oct. 28.  

“We did great,” she said. “They will need two SUVs to carry what was collected [on the last day].” 

Peletier said the plan is to continue the collection next year, again with help from Walton, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Vietnam. 

“I am planning to collect again next October, and Larry has agreed to have AARP sponsor the event,” she said. “We will do [the drive] on four Wednesdays in October.” 

For more information or to donate to Operation We Care, visit www.operationwecare.org or www.facebook.com/OpWeCare.