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.
So can we put up a new thread, telling people about michael's article and the deal we got from Petzl, tell people they can send donations to PR....????? Whats next?
Sounds like a good idea to me. This Jon guy seems like he cares about the troops too. If he's willing to kick in 50%, that brings the cost of the lights to 21.50 each.
Yep, 21.50...Jon is seeing about shipping to Iraq...if it costs too much from him, if he will ship in the US for free, we can have him ship them to PR and since those lights are small and I would not think very heavy, a bunch could fit in one of the largest Express boxes the PO provides. You know, the ones where you pay a specific amount based on the box, not weight etc. Oh wait.....if it is shipped to an APO, that is US isn't it???? If that is the case, then shipping would be free...right?
I just called Northern Mountain and they cancelled my order. They have the Plus, but they want $35 for it, not the ~$29 I had paid for the non-Plus, let alone the deal you're setting up with Petzl!
patriciaruth: put me down for $60, provided there is some way I know I can get one to the guy I have been sending packages to in Mosul (one of Spanaway Lori's people).
Glad you were able to cancel that order SW:) Lori and I talked about having a single fund raiser and splitting the proceeds between PR's people and Lori (Marty's) guys. If PR agrees to that it looks like we are on our way:)
Not trying to be difficult, it's just that I emailed my soldier and he says he can use this, so I kinda have told him I was going to get him one......
If he is associated with Lori's (marty's) guys, I think you could probably or we could, write to marty and ask him to make sure your guys get one. I would like my guy that I sent a Christmas package to to have one as well, BUt, I have decided to leave the decision to Marty to give them to those who can put them to the best use. Not much point in someone who processes paperwork to have one of these in lieu of a guy that is out in the dark chasing down boogiemen.
Ok, Jon said he would cover the cost of shipping to the APO via box, U. S. P. O.
This plan is coming together. PR, what say you? Should we mail our checks directly to you?
If we have checks mailed to PR I would like to have her name and contact information to send to Jon so he will know who he will be receiving the funds from, and I will ask him to mail her a receipt for the merchandise and a shipping thingie...sorry, the word I need is eluding me:)) Told you, I am cranky today...it messes with my brain:)
You might want to get the news out to some local papers etc. they would love to run a "human interest" "Support the military" kind of story and give you free exposure.
In other words: More people contributing....
Just thought about this... If there is interest I would be more then happy to set up a webpage for this if needed. We could purchase a domain name "Operation Lights" or so and put a paypal button on it with the appropriate info.
That way people can donate to you via Credit Cards etc..
Troops could contact us directly for lights as well...
Let me know...
Just thought about this... If there is interest I would be more then happy to set up a webpage for this if needed. We could purchase a domain name "Operation Lights" or so and put a paypal button on it with the appropriate info.
That way people can donate to you via Credit Cards etc..
Troops could contact us directly for lights as well...
Let me know...
I thought about advertising...KVI, Linda Vester on FOX would love this story I think, BUT....a 2500 match will only allow us to purchase a tad over 100 lights at that price so...I don't know;/
Count me in for $50, p.
Thats terrific 7.62:)
I was thinking, maybe when we create the new thread we should include the link to that other supplier in case there are people that would prefer to order lights on their own and ship them. Input??)
I just had an idea. What if we sent our money directly to Jon? If he would agree to keep a spreadsheet (bookkeeper thinking here)of names, amounts,and method of payment...then we would have an accurate record we could check, and PR wouldn't have to mess with it at all. We would mark our payment somehow so he would know what it's for. If we do it this way, we could even call him with a credit card number, since he is the supplier anyway. It would be easy for him to do. What do you think?
This is where I am fuzzy. I do not know the safest/surest way of handling this part of it. I can't figure out how to answer the question, how do we know that the dollars donated go to pay for lights to be shipped to our soldiers.
Hopefully patriciaruth has more insight/experience with this sort of thing. I am in the dark...give me light:))
Well Hanna, if Jon would agree to keeping all our specifically marked donations on one spreadsheet we could track it. He could email that sheet to any of us and we could then post it on FR. If someone notices their money is not there, then we could pursue that. Since Jon works for the company, there is no way he would deliberately try to sabotage something like this. First of all, he knows we would be watching, secondly... there are many of us. Most businesses would welcome the good publicity that would result from aiding us in supporting the troops. If a company tried to "misrepresent" or "steal" from something like this, it could result in the firing of that employee, not to mention serious damage to the company. I don't think we need to worry about that. We DO need an accurate account however of what was received from whom. Jon said he'd match us dollar for dollar up to 2500.00. Doesn't sound like a guy who would be dishonest.
You make good points. I shall write and ask him;)
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