<<<Back to Table of Contents
Nina Gayheart’s world became clouded in depression after saying goodbye to her 20-year-old son, James, in 2004. A U.S. Marine, James was leaving for his first military duty station in North Carolina. He would soon be deployed to Iraq.
Gayheart couldn’t help but wonder what her family would do if James didn’t return. “I’d call his disconnected cell phone just to hear his voice,” she said. Gayheart visited a website and discovered the military’s request for items from family and friends for their enlisted soldiers. “They asked for foot powder, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, band-aids, lotions – the list goes on and on. I became angry that the military didn’t supply these things.” That’s when the wheels starting turning. Gayheart prayed and felt a strong calling to make a difference in a very big way. “Nina couldn’t just sit there worrying about James,” says Cyndy Dyer, her longtime friend. “She’s like a ball of fire and decided to show the soldiers that the American public supports them.”
Five years later, Sgt. James Gayheart is serving his third deployment in Iraq and couldn’t be more proud of his mother. For the past two years, Gayheart has served on the frontlines in Austin as the southern region national director of Operation Interdependence (OI), a nonprofit organization that supplies monthly care packages to deployed military.
An OI volunteer since 2004, Gayheart coordinates efforts in the Austin area to collect, assemble and ship 3,000 quart-size baggies per month to service men and women for the duration of their deployments. Each baggie contains toiletries, snacks, other small items and a personalized note of thanks from a volunteer. “For the soldiers, it’s not about what’s inside the package, it’s the message that makes their day,” says Gayheart. “For a perfect stranger to write a note of appreciation and encouragement, it might be just the thing needed to lift spirits and boost morale.”
In her role as national director, Gayheart coordinates efforts to raise money and awareness of OI. She also serves as area manager for the Austin shipping center, where bags of items are assembled, packaged and shipped overseas. The Austin OI group has more than 200 volunteers, including Sigrid Gilbert, who has worked with Gayheart since 2005. “Nina brings her life to OI,” says Sigrid. “She runs the OI organization like a CEO of a company.” Gayheart secures donations from corporations and organizations like KTSA in San Antonio, H-E-B and IBC Bank. She also creates partnerships like the Girl Scouts “Operation Cookie” Program that gives Austin-area citizens the chance to donate boxes of cookies to the troops. She has secured donated warehouse spaces in New Braunfels, Austin and Lakeway, which hold the many tons of items she generates through donation drives. She also raises money to pay for box shipments, coordinates special events at businesses like Thunder Hill Raceway in Kyle and raises awareness by entering floats in the Lakeway Fourth of July Parade and Congress Street Veteran’s Day Parade.
It’s the coordinated effort of OI volunteers who keep coming back, bringing donations, assembling bags and writing letters who make it all possible, says Gayheart. “We have volunteers of all ages who just want to do something to say ‘thank you’ to the troops. They have fun, and they bring new volunteers.”
Between working a full-time job and volunteering with OI, Gayheart often puts in 80-hour weeks. Her upbringing, she says, has inspired her to help others. At age 12, she grew up quickly when her mother became ill, and suddenly she was running the house and raising two young siblings while her father worked. “My parents never had many material things, but they had lots of love for others,” she says. “It made me grateful for what I had.” Her husband Laine, is her rock and support. “I’m very lucky. He knows how important OI is to me and is always there, helping me, caring for the animals and cleaning house on the weekends,” she says.
Gayheart will not be satisfied until all 250,000 troops worldwide are supported. She believes OI was dropped into her lap by God. “He knew my heart, and he placed the people into my path who would help me reach my dreams.”
Baggies Full of Love
This note was included
in one of the care packages:
“My name is Elizabeth and I am six years old. My family and I have filled this little bag with many things just for you. There are things in this bag which you can see, like toothpaste, soap, lotion and shampoo. But there are many things you cannot see – my heart, my love, my respect and most importantly, my prayers for you to return home safely to your family very soon.”
MORE INFO:
In 2001, shortly after 9/11, Albert R. Renteria, a Marine who served in the Gulf War, started OI and devised its well-organized civilian-to-military delivery system that closely follows Department of Defense and U.S. Postal Service guidelines. Prepaid OI boxes go through a three-step inspection process and reach soldiers in as little as nine days after shipping. For more info, go to oidelivers.org. To donate or volunteer in Central Texas, contact Nina Gayheart at 512.560.9670 or ngayheart@oidelivers.org.
favorite charity in Austin?
Anything to do with the military.
They deserve our thanks