Posted on 11/25/2001 1:16:02 PM PST by patriciaruth
FReepers! I need emails to send to our troops with the Christmas presents that are being mailed out this week to the 101st AIRBORNE. We have 200 plus presents, but only about a third of them so far have a personal message to go with them to show the troops that we care about them and are grateful for their sacrifices for our country and for putting their lives on the line for our freedom.
PLEASE FReepMail me or send an email to my personal email (below) a Dear Soldier note for the Holidays! Do it today, so I can print them out and put them in the box tomorrow.
AND if anyone could also contribute toward purchasing one or more scarves, or contribute toward the postage, just FReepmail me for my snail mail address or use www.paypal.com and pay by credit card using my personal email address (below).
So far, ABOUT 1/3 of the 200 scarves are bought or pledged, and I would like to put someone else's name, not mine on at least some of the 130 scarves yet to be adopted and given to a serviceman pulling duty on Christmas at an observation post or wherever they may be now that the 101st Airborne has been moved. Guess where? In fact, the news is reporting our troops are landing near Kandahar now.
Contributors so far are:
Audrey --7
Kathy -13
Shirley --8
Deanne --7
Lorraine --2
Lida --2
Kay--9
Sheila --2
Lynette--8
Jacqueline--2
Isabelle--5
Kim--1
Mike--unknown coming
*******
Email messages sent so far for the troops:
Carrie; Margaret; family in High Ridge, MO; Ruth in Visalia, CA; Laura
Cards coming: Gretchen; "Cool Guy" Christmas scarves URL http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/571233/posts Kosovo Care Package URL http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bd55aeb7d48.htm
Somewhere along the way trying to find seamstresses, and taking one of the brown silk ones already done to show what I didn't like about it, and taking my two well done personal silk scarves (gifts of my husband), the manilla padded mailer they were in disappeared.
I am still accepting prayer contributions for anyone with an in to St. Jude?
The big box was strapped multiple times and it went out early Wednesday afternoon by Priority Mail, and should be received at the DOD Depot back East by Monday, the 3rd of December at the very latest.
I insured it for $3200.
more
Keep us posted, my friend.
I wish the scarves had turned out more professional looking, with rolled edges, rather than machine running stitched hems, which looks serviceabe enough. However, the silk is of fantastic quality, and feels absolutely marvelous.
The five ladies who responded to an ad I put in the local paper took a pitance for their work as they believed in the project, and one lady donated her time outright.
So the donations will help these ladies give a nicer Christmas to their children and grandchildren while they were trying to create a nice one for the troops.
I had clear plastic Ziplock baggies, and put in a finished side out glowing, heavenly to the touch silk scarf, most of which were around 18x48", a BIG, LONG scarf for big, tall men who carry 100 lbs loads. And then I put in a printed acknowledgement of which seamstress did that particular scarf, and an message printed of festive holiday paper bordered with snowmen against a red background, or green holly with red cardinals, or Mickey and Pluto with Holiday lights around them and a big Merry Christmas in script across the top of the page. And then a fair number had a Christmas card instead, and I had to cut some of the cards so they would fit in the smaller baggies, and it all turned into a collage of Christmas when piled in a mound.
SEE posts #303 and #305, for report :)
The number of pledges yet to be collected is about 104x15 is $1060, meaning about $2232 seems to be total funds raised so far if everyone honors their pledges.
That was less than I thought, but I made the mistake of counting some people twice due to having their real name in one case and their FReepname in another.
Late now. I post a bit more tomorrow.
EXCEPT to say that 4TheFlag and 68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub, Snow Bunny and 4TheUSA did quite a Freeping job and brought in over $1400 more in pledges than I had when they starting bumping the thread and rallying the FReepers. GREAT WORK, you all!!!
104x15 is $1560 + 1172.78 already in hand is 2732.78, so the FReepers have done as well as I originally thought, garnering about 1900 in pledges as well as all the fabulous emails.
I'll try to get the accounting of my expenses done in the next couple of days, there was about $2400 for the silk and over $500 in labor, plus the baggies, the holiday paper, the ad to find seamstresses, a printer ribbon, strapping tape, postage of $92.75, and nobody's counting mileage/gas. I donated our old Christmas cards.
After Christmas we must all gather back if we get any response from the field and share it.
They're going to have to wait until Christmas to open them up?!
BTW, thanks for all you're doing!
Bless you both, and your good works. :-)
You know, I originally got in to this for my kids, to teach them to remember our troops. But the lesson has broken my heart and I'm so proud to have been a part of this.
Oh no, I can't take any of the credit for this. This project was patriciaruth's all the way. She has a heart of gold!
Well, okay, maybe this time. But I know there are lots of good things that you do. Like driving Jim to Modesto many, many Saturdays to FReep the creep and showing up every Friday to support our troops at the rally. And I also heard that you came up with quite a bit of the money to fund this scarf project.
And yes, I agree, patriciaruth does have a heart of gold. :-)
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