Operation Homefront of Washington does not take its mandate to help Soldiers and their families lying down.

"We're here to help Soldiers in any way," Tracy Curran, operations manager, Operation Homefront of Washington, said as vehicles lined up next to semi trailers full of mattresses Saturday morning in Lakewood.

Operation Homefront provides emergency and morale assistance to Servicemembers, wounded warriors and their families.

The reason for the rolling slowdown outside Ed's Moving and Storage centered on Homefront's collaboration with Ashley Furniture, Inc. in creating Operation Homefront Mattress Giveaway.

"We were supposed to start at 9 this morning, but folks started showing up at 7, so to work we went," Curran said.

It was good work.

The reason for the early risers in the moving and storage parking lot was that the operation gave away 221 mattresses, estimated between $1,400 and $1,700 each.

"We're talking about $308,000 worth of mattresses," John McDonagh, president of Operation Homefront of Washington, explained.

He pointed out that Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors - all of whom had preregistered for the event - had stopped by to pick up their mattresses.

"We could easily give away a thousand of these," McDonagh added.

While Curran and McDonagh praised Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc. for its largess, they singled out Matt Kupka, owner of Ed's Moving and Storage and the chairman of Operation Homefront of Washington's Board, for praise.

"We're really fortunate to have a man like Matt Kupka working with us," McDonagh said.  "For the past two and a half years, he has stepped up to help."

Nearby, Kupka and several volunteers put a mattress into the bed of a pickup truck.

"It's truly gratifying to be involved with this," Kupka said as he climbed into a semi-trailer to pull out another mattress. "It's just gratifying."