America Supports You: Virginia Group Supports Wounded Troops, Families

I've met and worked with Peggy Baker and found her to be very credible and compassionate. Not many charities have impressed me as this one has. This is an organization that everyone should get behind.

Wounded servicemembers have an extra helping hand thanks to Operation First Response, a group specializing in providing them supplies and funds during their recuperation.

Peggy Baker of Culpepper, Va., founder and president of the all-volunteer nonprofit, answered questions from interested troops Jan. 19 at the Washington Capitals' "Salute to the Military Night" at the MCI Center here. While thousands of servicemembers and their families enjoyed free tickets to the hockey game against the St. Louis Blues, Baker took the opportunity to offer assistance.

"We're kind of an extension. Where somebody will fall through the loops, we try to pick it up," she said.

As a member of America Supports You, a Department of Defense-sponsored effort to support the troops, the organization has found ways to provide a variety of services to show troops "they are heard, cared about, and honored," Baker said.

Baker, whose son is an Army specialist, said she founded OFR after she noticed a need while helping a friend. "My girlfriend's boy lost his leg, and I went into Walter Reed to meet with her to help her because she was from Iowa, and just saw a lot of things that we could actually do as citizens," she said.

Check out their web site at Operation First Response and
America Supports You