Posted on 09/22/2004 3:37:20 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
It's hard not to wince at the notion of Iraqi children walking barefoot on searing hot sand in 137 degree heat.
So when Marine Lt. Ben Budde told his mother Sandy, the principal at Charlotte Wood Middle School in Danville, what he had seen, she launched a collection drive for California's ubiquitous footwear: flip-flops.
Within a week, students had brought in more than 500 pairs. Platform flip-flops. Flat plastic flip-flops. Sturdy canvas flip-flops. Flip-flops with bumpy massaging soles.
"They walk around on the hot cement and hot sand with no shoes and their feet burning," Katie Barry, 13, said matter-of-factly of her decision to help bring some relief to the Iraqi children.
The idea came to Budde during a rare phone call three weeks ago with her 23-year-old son, who serves with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division. He can't tell his family exactly where he is stationed in Iraq, but his mother knows he is in the thick of it. She routinely sends him care packages and asked if he needed anything in particular.
"Yes, mom," he said. "Sandals."
"Sandals?" Budde remembers saying. "For a Marine lieutenant?"
He told her about the children, who crowd around the Marines in the unbearable heat hoping to get some candy. Remembering the American shopping cycles, he wondered if stores would be clearing their shelves about now of summer fashions such as flip-flops, which would be easy to mail and a great relief to a number of hot little feet.
Budde bought a half dozen pairs and mentioned the idea to Jo Loecher, a teacher who spearheads much of the charitable work at Charlotte Wood. In short order she organized a drive that saw students bringing in 20 pairs apiece.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I salute you!
I see a flip-flop joke coming.
good news for Iraq *ping* as some would say charity begins at home
Students have sent postcards and care packages to soldiers in Iraq and school supplies to Iraqi children. But in those cases, someone else mailed the stuff off to Iraq. That is the next challenge for Charlotte Wood: figuring out how to pay to ship the sandals halfway around the world.
They have no idea what that might cost, but Loecher is confident someone will step forward to pay the postage. She has a positive attitude about things like that, and tries to instill it in her students.
"If you have a dream of something you want to do, I'll help you," she tells them. "I won't tell you it's silly. I won't tell you it can't be done."
If we send all the flip-flops to Iraq, how will we pick on John Kerry when he comes to town?
"That is the next challenge for Charlotte Wood: figuring out how to pay to ship the sandals halfway around the world. "
You don't have to pay to have them shipped to Iraq...if you are shipping to an APO you only pay to get the package to New York. The military picks the packages up and delivers them to the bases in Iraq.
I shipped a dozen pairs of sandles and a dozen t shirts and it cost about $8
FLIP-FLOP ALERT (ping)
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