Four months ago on Veterans’ Day, the Upper Deck Company announced that it was partnering with “Operation Gratitude,” a non-profit organization that sends 100,000-plus “care packages” annually to U.S. service members deployed in hostile regions across the world.
On that date, Upper Deck launched its “Million Pack March for the Troops” campaign in an effort to send sealed packs of donated trading cards (sports and entertainment-based products) to U.S. military men and women deployed overseas.
To date, a total of 100,000 sealed packs from sports card boxes have been donated to the worthy cause. So, even with Upper Deck’s pack-for-pack match, the end goal of 1,000,000 donated packs by Veterans’ Day 2010 still requires plenty of charitable involvement from collectors everywhere.
“It’s an honor for us to partner with a dignified organization like Operation Gratitude,” said Chris Carlin, Upper Deck’s manager of Sports Marketing. “The brave U.S. military men and women serving overseas certainly deserve a well-needed distraction and we’ve heard from them that opening up a pack of trading cards can make them feel a little bit closer to home.”
To create additional awareness, Upper Deck will be hosting donation drives at major industry shows this year including the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore in August while also working with its network of certified Upper Deck Diamond Dealers and hobby shops to establish donation drop-off points.
A breakdown of nearly 70 drop-off sites where collectors can show up in person to make their pack donations is available here.
Upper Deck also recently launched a website dedicated to the program with information on how to donate and why it’s such a worthy cause.
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