Approaching the Walk

I left off last with my horrible post office experience. That evening we began to go over every detail of the Patriot Walk Around Houston. The appropriate setting? $1.59 margaritas and .99 cent drafts at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Los Cucos. A few drinks and a page of notes later…we were ready to get back to work!

Yesterday we met with a sweet, sweet lady by the name of Alice. Alice is an activities coordinator at Treemont Retirement Community. After contacting her about our cause, she welcomed us over to talk a little about how their community could help. We left a few hundred blank greeting cards with her so that they could be distributed to all residents interested in dropping a few lines to our troops. She explained that this is a very elderly community and she was sure that they would be very interested in participating. She is going to set out a few examples of what they could include in their cards, but she did look forward to them speaking about their own service in the military. There are many veterans residing there and I hope to not only include them in this opportunity, but I would love to hear their own stories and memories they have from serving.

Now for something way cool! I received a call from the elementary school that I attended as a child. They are excited to participate and would like to meet with me to go over ideas. They want to get all of their art classes working on a neat project! It was humbling to talk with her and I may even meet with a few teachers that are STILL teaching there. Think they’ll remember me? GO Wilson Wranglers!

Today = press release. I was able to put together a press release about the upcoming walk so that the local newspapers and media are able to learn a little bit about what we are doing (and hopefully add an awesome article or story!). I have sent it out to about twenty different community newspapers in the surrounding Houston area. I knew Houston was big, but WOW, I am being reminded of just how big as I go through these steps.

We also released some information about possible sponsorships and donations. We are looking for companies or individuals that would be interested in making a small donation to Adopt A US Soldier and in return, Mark will be wearing their company shirt or logo for a day of his walk. The funds will be used to cover some shipping costs of some package we have ready to go. So far, there are 19 boxes! If you know of a company that would be interested, contact us at patriotwalkhouston@gmail.com.

We are in full swing and ready to hit the road! Mark will be walking this Saturday, March 5 through next Saturday, March 12. I am looking forward to being a part of it all. I will be walking three of the days with him. Wish me luck!