Care package telethon raises over $1 million

World Net Daily reports on Thursday's historic effort to help U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan:

A fundraiser organized to collect sponsorships for care packages for the tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan for this 4th of July has generated more than $1 million – the final total could even reach $1.2 million, according to organizers.

WND columnist Melanie Morgan and commentator Michelle Malkin of Move America Forward, the nation's largest grassroots pro-troop organization, assembled the sponsorship campaign and aired a "From the Front Lines" Web-a-thon at Ustream.tv this week.

On her website, Morgan confirmed, "The telethon exceeded my wildest expectations. I thought that if we were really lucky, really good, caught some major breaks – we might raise $400,000 – tops.

"Instead, the final tally on the electronic tote board was $1,055,719," she wrote.

"The response was so overwhelming that our website could not keep up with the orders. When all is said and done, I am guessing that Move America Forward will have collected about $1.2 million. People are still donating because UStream.tv re-broadcast the stream, and radio stations across the country were broadcasting or re-broadcasting in various markets," she said.

"Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham personally donated $15,000 each, and Rush Limbaugh pledged a personal check, Mark Levin donated, Michelle Malkin and Coulter cash flowed into our account. Mark Williams from WROR in Albany, New York, flew into California to be our 'relief pitcher' and his wife Holly ran the sound board and produced while we were on-the-air," Morgan wrote.

"Thank you America, and the good Lord above. Thank you Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Dr. Laura, Monica Crowley and so many more, including the awesome John Ondrasik of Five For Fighting, and the fabulous comedian and serious patriot Jackie Mason," she wrote. "Thank you to the entire blogging community and folks at HotAir.com, Michelle Malkin.com, the Media Research Center, Human Events, WorldNetDaily, NewsMax and all the others in the on-line publishing world," she said.

Of course, the real story is that hundreds of thousands of generous Americans participated in a New Media venture that has never before been done. They did it for one reason: love and support for the United States military, our troops and our heroes," she said.
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The care packages are including cookies, coffee, Gatorade, beef jerky and other items in the on-going effort also supported by Nancy Reagan, Gen. Petraeus, Lt. Col. Oliver North and Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

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