I pray NYC opens it heart one more time to do this again....it would be well deserved...
Posted on 02/19/2005 12:40:42 AM PST by patriciaruth
Time for a new thread!
Our Merry Band of Patriots has seen a psy-ops unit at Bagram, Afghanistan, help educate voters in Afghanistan and come home successfully, while we supported them and special forces in the field by sending over 100 movies and many packages of snacks and toiletries and Hallowe'en candy. A Christmas tree and decorations (Daybreakcoming) and stockings (Ican'tbelieveit) and cards and over 400 candy canes were sent for their follow-on unit, and a box with movies and magazines and misc is just beginning to fill for their next care package. The movies and books we sent previously went into the Special Forces library there.
We've seen Beast Battery at Kirkuk, Iraq, through till their deployment home, sending them over 100 movies and dozens of books and a microwave and DVD/VCR player (from arjay) and many big boxes of snacks. Plus a huge wave of goodies was organized by McLynnan for Christmas in Kirkuk (2 prelit trees, ornaments, Santa suit, many stockings with stuffers, many cards, and a couple thousand candy canes to share out with all the forces there).
We've supported the 411th Engineers at Baghdad in 2004 with about 70 movies and several dozen books, a Playstation 2 and a Nintendo console with a couple dozen games (from asgardshill and ican'tbelieveit), a 4 foot Christmas tree and ornaments and boxes of snacks and many cards and 600 candy canes. In the next couple months we will be bidding them Godspeed as they return to their homebase in Hawaii.
We've sent over 50 movies, a DVD/VCR player (from arjay), and a dozen and a half books to an MI unit near Kirkuk, plus some Christmas decorations and stocking stuffers, and many cards and 156 candy canes. They have mostly left for home now and we just sent a package with more movies to their follow-on unit.
Also we have sent some packages to an Aviation unit at Balad, Iraq and to an Infantry Medics unit, and a small Christmas package each to another AVN unit and an MP unit.
Stryker Infantry company formerly at Fallujah and now at Mosul since November has been the major focus of our care packages these past months. All of Stryker at Mosul has taken fire, and our adopted company has suffered a KIA and some soldiers with severe injuries.
Early on we sent food items (mostly power bars and dried fruit and nuts) then Christmas stockings stuffed with goodies and many cards and 200 candy canes, and since Christmas have begun sending movies. They recently received a DVD/VCR player (from arjay) and with the movies just mailed today their collection will total about 75 movies and a dozen books.
And all this happened because our grassroots volunteer group began forming in the early summer of 2001 to send care packages to Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, when the 101st Airborne and then the 10th Mountain were there.
The contents of packages just mailed will be listed in post below.
Isn't it amazing how people (referring to your church ladies) want to give when they have an avenue to do so? Bless their hearts (in a good southern way).
I also have a leftover priority box which can hold 20 Hot choc. boxes, 8 pkgs per box. I can mail it tomorrow.
bttt
I don't do much else. My flower beds are full of weeds. The house looks like a Walmart distribution center, but not nearly as neat.
As you may have noticed, I delegated a lot of the work this year to trusted troop supporters around the country.
We all as a group are doing a lot more this year, but I personally am doing less this Christmas than for Christmas one year ago.
So, we will have to see how the soldiers in Baghdad like your Playstation2 games. I'm hoping they get a lot of fun out of them.
Thanks for helping out!
Patty
Ah, I found the message that your sis and her colleagues are doing it directly.
That is so inspiring! God bless Louisiana!
CAluvdubya and kattracks are divvying up the hot chocolate for the Engineers, but if you want to send some to Tal Afar, there are a lot of soldiers there that would appreciate some more.
I'll FReepmail you.
Patty-
I can send cocoa. Let me know how much more is needed and I'll take care of it.
Kattracks has just sent a bunch more cocoa to the Engineers, but there can't be too much of that as it has been VERY popular with all the units that have gotten it, with the cold weather they are having now.
Yes, please send what you can handle financially and timewise. It'll be wonderful after the first waves arrive if more keeps coming. :-)
Post to me and mathluv what you manage to get in the mail. And there will be Engineers outdoors building and fixing stuff in the cold that will be very grateful to come home to a cup of steaming cocoa that you sent.
Cheers!
Patty
Wonderful pictures!
A dream come true?
(Why do I suddenly have a craving for a cup of hot chocolate?)
LOL! (Funny post above by kattracks)
Iceskater volunteered to send more hot cocoa mix, and when I first said please go ahead, I thought it would be extra to what kattracks and CAluvdubya were going to send.
But CAluvdubya is ill and can't manage to send the last 150 envelops needed as she had thought she could yesterday. I am sitting on her to stay home and rest as I know better than she does how much trouble she can get into if she doesn't.
So, here's hoping iceskater can fill in the last 15 boxes of 10 envelops or 18 boxes of 8 envelops to make enough for all the Engineers to have a hot one.
Let me know if you can't do all 144-150 envelops, iceskater, as I can do any left over amounts.
:-)
Patty
Not a problem.
I'll take care of it this weekend!
Sorry to hear that CAluvdubya is sick - get better soon!
Oh Patty - I am now certified in BLS CPR. Did it right before Thanksgiving. And then this week, the protocol was changed. My timing isn't so great on that, is it? EMT training is next.
Fantastic!
For EMT you may need to do ACLS. If so, concentrate on learning the dysrhythmias well and the memorizing in detail the protocol flow sheets for dealing with each dysrhythmia. That's the key.
EMT work is way too exciting for me. Glad someone has the centering to calmly deal with emergencies according to training.
It's a process. The first step was BLS CPR. There's a whole bunch of things I need to train in. I may even get crazy and get certified to drive an ambulance!!
I hope my brain can hold all this new information - that's the one thing I worry about.
I'm usually the calm one in an emergency so I think it might be a good fit for me.
I sent my final boxes out yesterday..
Box 7 (going to Mosul)
Value--FREE-donated by Walmart Postage--$7.70
40 "Stay Warm" Toe Warmers
Box 8
To Psyops in Baghdad
Value--$9 Postage--$7.70
1 LB. Peanut Brittle
2 Boxes (10 each) Little Debbies Holiday Snack Cakes
1 Box of 5 Little Debbies Christmas Tree Cakes
1 Box of 5 Little Debbies Christmas Tree Brownies
Box 9
To Psyops in Baghdad
Value--$52 Postage--$7.70
1 Box of 12 Little Debbies Swiss Cake Rolls
8 DVD's:
The Dirty Dozen
Dances With Wolves
Young Guns
Enter the Dragon
The Patriot
We Were Soldiers
The 13th Warrior
Legends of the Fall
Box 1 – Wt. (can't read my copy of customs form): Postage: $20.10
Decorations & Tableware:
Dartboard set
6 plastic trays for cookies
4 plastic bowls for candy
2 plastic bowls for popcorn
2 Christmas tree plastic trays
250 Christmas napkins
150 Christmas snack plates
160 Christmas cups
3 Christmas vinyl tablecloths
Santa hat
Reindeer antler headband with bells
4 sheets Christmas window clings
1 pack Christmas hanging cardboard cutouts
4 packs 500 icicles
500’ roll red crepe paper streamer
500’ roll green crepe paper streamer
4 green tinsel garlands with gold stars
4 red tinsel garlands with gold stars
2 multicolor 100-light strings
snow blanket
bag of plastic snow
2 16-packs small red velvet flat bows
plastic Santa door cover
3 bunches poinsettias
3 bunches holly
ornament hooks
red felt tree skirt with tartan edging
Merry Christmas letter banner
Madlibs Celebration edition game
Box 2: Wt.(can't read slip): Postage: $12.90
Wrapped trinkets from dollar stores
Includes decks of cards, yearly calendars, coffee mugs, handwarmer packs, manicure set, book lights & other stuff I don't remember
Box 3: Wt.(can't read slip): Postage: $16.90
Handmade Christmas stockings with bags of candy like the ones in box 4, fullsize candy cane, Christmas pencil & a Christmas card (my co-workers wrote some, I did the rest) in each
[Comment: We were joking around about writing "Good luck catching Osama", and decided the absolutely most inappropriate possible thing to write would be "Kill a terrorist for Baby Jesus" - the whole time I was writing cards, I was so tempted to put that on just one]
Box 4: Wt.: 35 # (I actually can't read this slip either, but I remember asking because this was the heaviest one)Postage: $22.25
50 ziplock sandwich baggies with a fullsize Snickers bar, pack of gum, mini candycanes, Hershey minis, hard cnady & chewy candy in each
extra candy that didn't come out even after I did the individual baggies
box of 110 ziploc sandwich baggies
Box 5 - Wt.(can't read slip): Postage: $10.55
Remainder of filled Christmas stockings (total of 52: 27 green, 25 red) & dollar store trinkets (there were at least 55, then I lost count) & leftover fullsize candy canes
The post office clerk didn't bear down heavily when writing the weights on the customs forms, so the only reason I can match up which postage goes with which box is that I remember what their relative weights were, & I have the printed receipt from the postage meter.
I got reeled into helping decorate one of the firm's Christmas trees next Tuesday with the lure that we would make the theme "Support the Troops", so I'm planning to put out Priority Mail envelopes & boxes of Christmas Cards for people to send - how many APO addresses do you have? I figured I would put a note on each envelope: "Tal Afar", "Bagram", "Mosul", "Kirkuk" - what do you think?
I've been away for a bit and am just catching up on things. Is the hot chocolate taken care of or do we need some more somewhere? I can send some more.
CAluvdubya, sorry to hear you're sick. I hope you are much better by now.
Iceskater was going to pick up the remaining 15 boxes of 10 envelops of cocoa that needed to be sent to the Engineers in Baghdad. I was just writing to Tal Afar about what has been sent or is being sent there and saw again your list of goodies.
Our local optometrist just mailed December 3, 2005, to Tal Afar
3 boxes 75 bags 1-2 oz. beef jerky—locally made
3 boxes 30 bags Boy Scout microwave popcorn
9 boxes with 22 bags 5 oz festive trail mix—locally made
1 boxes 14 bags variety fruits and nuts—locally made
4 boxes with 50 individual wrap turtles (chocolate pecan caramel) and 10 specialty candy canes—handmade locally
How's everything going with you?
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