Posted on 11/16/2001 1:14:18 PM PST by patriciaruth
Which troops exactly will be receiving these gifts is not known. Below are excerpts from the email from the Army officer that coordinates bulk donations, from which you may extract what clues you can.
Good Afternoon Dr. XXXX
Your offer of 200 Silk Scarves is accepted.
...Per my corresponding with my point of contact in theater...Command would like to distribute them to outlying sites pulling duty on holidays....
Please inform me when you are ready to ship the Scarves, and I will provide a Donation Number and the stateside ship to address.
Why we choose silk scarves for the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa presents.
A few months ago, when I asked my cousin, now an army Colonel, what the troops might like for holiday presents, he said that the most appreciated gifts during the Gulf War were silk scarves that the troops wore under the LTB (load bearing equipment) to take the friction off the neck and shoulders and back while hiking to prevent chaffing. He suggested black, brown or camouflage for color as they wouldn't show the dirt and sweat so much, and silk because it is light weight and warm for the coming winter. He recommended 18 x 48 inches.
Now we are at the point where we have obtained enough silk for over 200 scarves and some lovely ladies in the rural town I live in are sewing the scarves, and they should be ready to send in 7-10 days.
The black silk, high quality for durability, cost almost $2500, and Mountaingirl and I have put it on our credit cards, and are now asking the ping list and anyone else who would like to join us for donations.
If you would like to have one or more scarves sent in your name with your personal message to one or more soldiers in the field, or would like to join with someone else to send a scarf, then we need to hear from you in the next few days. Each scarf costs in fabric, hiring seamstresses, and postage, about $15.
As there is a lot of unemployment in my town I am paying minimum wage to the seamstresses so it is part love for the troops and part need for their families which motivated them to answer my local ad.
You may send your donation either by check to my home or may pay by credit card via Paypal. Just FReepmail me under personal reply and I will reply with instructions.
I am hoping that many of you can immediately send me Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa or Happy Holidays cards with personal messages for the soldiers, family photo, child drawings, or other inventive flat/thin decoration with your name for me to include with the scarves. Each scarf will go in a ziplock bag for the soldier to store and keep it dry, and the cards and messages will go in the clear baggies with the decorative part showing. The baggies are 5 x 6 1/2 inches, so the holiday card should not be larger than that if it can't be folded.
Anyone who would like to read about the care packages we have been sending to Camp Bondsteel for the last four months, can link to the thread below.
Link to the Care Packages for our Troops Thread
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