Looking Back

Time sure does fly. Looking back at the beginning of my volunteer efforts, it brings joy to see just how much I have put forth to gain as much support for our troops as possible. I have now been supporting my soldiers (several since many have returned home) for about 2 and a half years. I have had the title of Ambassador for nearly 2. I'd like to think that I have made a big difference in our troops lives, whether it be a letter to brighten their day or a collection of goods that helped get them through their deployment.

The great thing about a blog is not only the opportunity to share my experience, but also to have a sort of journal that I can look back on. I wanted to share a couple of links from the beginning of my volunteering. I am still working on finding another, seems the archives do not want to work with me this morning.

This first link is an interview that myself and Ann Johnson took part in. We were so lucky as to have Lieutenant Steve Osterholzer join us live with his thoughts on support from the states. The interview was published on September 7, 2009.
NPR Local Interview

Educating students in the area about the much needed support for our troops was a great accomplishment. I spent the day on campus (where I actually received my associates degree) and talked with many students. They held a letter writing campaign and collected items for care packages. Only later did I find out that they were also donating a XBOX 360 with several games. Really warmed my heart.
November 12, 2009
Cypress Times Article about Cy Fair College Efforts

The following is one of my favorites. A local magazine added our story to their Spring 2010 issue. It was great to know that readers all over the community were picking up that magazine at corner and grocery stores.
Cy Fair Magazine Article

These are just a few examples of how you can spread the word and put forth effort for the appreciation of our troops!

Gearing up for the Weekend

The time has come for another event! This weekend, Mark and I will be manning a booth at two day shopping event in Katy, Texas. The Home for the holidays gift market has been so kind as to offer a booth free of charge since we will be handing out information for Adopt A US Soldier and selling items to help cover the costs of all our shipping. At the event, we will be offering key fobs, bracelets, shirts and a few other miscellaneous items in hopes to gain some more monetary support for our troops in Kandahar. Here is the event information if anyone is interested in stopping by.

Home for the Holidays Spring Gift Market
Merrell Center
6301 S Stadium Ln
Katy Texas 77494
Saturday, April 30   10am-6pm
Sunday, May 1    11am-4pm
By following the link below, you can bring this print out and receive buy 1 get 1 free admission at the door!
http://www.homefortheholidaysgiftmarket.com/show_dates

Closing with the result of a few hours of doodling on Good Friday!

French Fries at the Bottom of the Bag

You know that feeling when you pull out your food from the to go bag and you find five extra french fries at the bottom of the bag, just waiting for you? I had that feeling today...

Stopped by the mail box to see if anything good came in and found a letter from a soldier overseas. I had pulled her name out of a database I have and written a letter thanking her for her service and reminding her that we are thinking of her. She was able to write back! Why is it like finding french fries in the bottom of the bag? After ordering a meal, you expect to get your meal. The extra fries at the bottom is just a little extra awesomeness. When registering or deciding to volunteer for Adopt A US Soldier, you are expecting to support a soldier while they are overseas. Getting letters in return is just a little extra awesomeness. 

I am sharing this with you to help some of you understand that supporting a soldier overseas isn't all about what you receive in return. To support a soldier you have to humble and understanding of the conditions they are in. You register to support them, not begin a relationship in which you are in contact daily, weekly or even monthly. To help some understand it better, let me put it this way. In all the time I have volunteered for AAUSS (approximately 2 years), I have received 2 letters total from soldiers overseas. As a supporter you have to be very understanding of the possible lack of communication. Sure I have received a few emails or Facebook requests on occasions, but only the 2 letters.

After 2 years of volunteering, I would have to say that to see this second letter was quite humbling, and well worth the wait.

Fold, Fold, Seal, Dear Soldier

Well, well, well. I must say that I am a "master kitter" after learning the technique of tri-folding, sealing and addressing "Dear Soldier" on about 500 letters and cards in the past couple of days. I can officially say that I am caught up with all we have collected and will have it all boxed by the end of the day. I am, however, going to hold on to some of the letters and cards and distribute them weekly. This way there is a constant supply coming in to help cheer up our troops!

As for the box I was making to hold the cards and letters, it is done! I was going to hold off on sharing pictures just in case our contact in Kandahar sees it on Facebook, but if he does, hopefully it will just excite him. I'll hold off on adding them to Facebook though (for now!). Here it is!

I pretty much "doodled" it all when I had some down time, colored it, cut them out and then arranged them all around on the box. I then just covered it will clear packing tape. The inside and underneath of the box are lined with that good ol' priority mailing tape. Turned out pretty neat looking. Hopefully this will be a nice addition to their coffee shop. It can be set out and a soldier that is coming through can feel free to take a letter.

Update on the shipment of 17 boxes - they made it in a record 5 days! Was so excited to see an email in my inbox with the following picture. Jean was welcomed back to his office after a long day of flying, to find all of these boxes stacked around his desk. How awesome!

Off I go to finish off a couple of boxes I have to pack - and then to the post office they go tomorrow!

On a last note - if y'all could, please share the link to the blog! I would love to share our efforts to help support the troops, perhaps give some supporters some new ideas and even some inspiration. Thanks in advance!

Ahead or Behind You

Today was a very productive and rewarding day for me. After collecting cards from Treemont Retirement Community, and receive a huge batch of letters from Cy-Lakes High School, I was plenty occupied with the inspiring words of those both young and elderly. I like to pair up any that would go well with soldiers on my list. For instance, one may be in partly spanish while another may have a lot of hobbies in common with some in particular.

After arriving at Treemont I was able to talk with Alice, a contact there who coordinates the activities for the entire community. She collected many cards that the residents had written in to express their thanks and thoughts for our soldiers overseas. Alice pulled one of the cards out and was sure that I saw it. I will not give out any names to respect their privacy, but it was a very heartfelt card from a veteran.

This card brought both smiles and tears to my face upon reading it. He joined the Army at the age of 17, in 1946. He spent over 20 years in the military and over 10 of those years, he was overseas. He told a little about his past service and at the end he concluded with what I thought was so funny. He mentioned that he had "received a call in 2004 from the Pentagon. They told me that if there were ever to be a WWIII, I would be called back to duty. If I did not come, I would be court marshalled." Whether he was serious or not, I'll never know!

Now for the most touching part of my day. The Cy-Lakes High School took part in a letter writing project. Their National Honor Society has chosen to write monthly letters to soldiers. They submitted the first batch today and there are over 250. These are not brief letters with a thank you and God bless. These are very elaborate, "give it your all" types of letters. I was a bit sniffly on several occasions. Here are a few excerpts from them, ones that really warmed my heart.

"I hope you are having an amazing day, and if you are not, I hope my happiness, yes the happiness of a stranger who appreciates your efforts, makes you feel better."

""Progress is the activity of today and the assurances of tomorrow." I like this quote because its motivating, its a good way of thinking of all the obstacles that one must overcome today to be able to assure a tomorrow."

"I believe that every human being on Earth deserves to be free, and by you fighting you are giving others a chance to have that."

"I know you don't know me and I certainly don't know you but it is a thing of beauty the connection we really have together. You are the reason why I live in America with a peaceful state of mind and the freedom everyone deserves. You are the reason why we can call ourselves, American. Your heart and soul is in a time of wretched and evil, yet you stilld ecide to defend for what you live for, you hope for, and you would die for. Such heart deserves more letters like these, as you are the reason why I could write such letters in the comfort of my home."

"Whether or not you know it, you have inspired me to choose the path of a military life. Seeing the men and women that serve our country every day gives me such pride in our country. Your service can not be measured by words or money. The amount that you do for this country every day is more than anyone could ever repay. So with this, I salute you."

"You are my hearts reminder that I always have a choice."

"What I fear, is what you embrace, and for that I thank you."

"Beauty varies. In America, beauty is Jennifer Aniston or Leonardo de Caprio. In Asia, doll-like features are beautiful. however, I believe universally, beauty is from the inside. You, are a beautiful human being."

There are so many more, but I would be here for days. After all of my reading today, I have learned one thing. Whether you have many memories and experience ahead of you, or behind you, we all share one thing in common; patriotism. Both the high school students and the residents in retirement were both very passionate about their love for our country, and those that are serving to protect it. The residents are able to share all of their experience and memories with the world, to help us understand what our heroes have gone through. Our youth are able to share their aspirations and how much they long to make a difference, using our soldiers as role models.

Thank you Treemont Retirement Community and Cy-Lakes High School!

Post Office and New Idea

Looking back on a blog post from a few weeks ago, I expressed to you all that I had a horrible post office experience. I can now say that I have had a wonderful experience! On Saturday I was there as they opened the doors for business and was able to ship out 17 large flat rate boxes full of items. I was in the mind set that I would not let any comments bother me and would keep patient and thankful. The odds were unfortunately stacked against me. I was hoping for at least 2 clerks and no line. I was third in line, with about 5 people behind me. The first customer they took, they realized there credit card machine was down. That now leaves 1 clerk with many customers behind me, approaching 10 to 15 or so. I am now at the counter and although I had two boxes in my hand, my handy dandy father started bringing in the remainder. You could tell the people behind me were not very thrilled and during the whole visit, we only had one comment. At the very beginning, a police officer mentioned that we should be paying those behind us in line to wait (couldn't believe this!). My dad mentioned we were shipping every box to our boys and girls in Afghanistan and they remained cordial. The entire time I was at the desk, the other counters remained closed. All of those people waited patiently behind me for 45 minutes when I shipped all these boxes. The clerk was very friendly and thought it was so awesome that we were sending all these. Although it was tempting to tell the person behind me to, "go ahead," those of you who visit the post office often know that this can turn into everyone wanted to skip ahead since they just have one or two packages. I would end up waiting there all day if I was that giving. I kept optimistic and it was a SUCCESS! Hope you receive these packages soon Task Force Eagle Lift!

New small project I am working on. I am putting together a box to send over to our contact in Kandahar. Just a quick re-cap: this is a group of soldiers that built their own coffee shop to help boost morale and serve as a central location where the soldiers can "get away." I am using a little of my spare time to doodle something up. I am taking a regular cardboard box and pasting little sayings and drawings all over. I am then going to use either laminating sheets or a liquid sealer to cover it so that nothing will fall off. What will this serve as? A simple *hug* from home! I am going to send it and ask that they leave it on there in their shop. Every week I will be sending a batch of letters, cards, drawings, etc. collected here in Houston. They can then compile them in the box and if a soldiers is pouring a cup of coffee, he/she can take a letter or card to help brighten their day. Cheesy? Maybe. But I think it will go over real well :)

Here is the start of it!

Will update when I am finished here in a couple of days! I think it is going to turn out really neat.

I would like to end with a simple request. Do you have a DVD or two in your collection that you know you will most likely never watch again? Would you like to help support our troops? We are looking for DVDs that we can send over to the shop. Someone has donated a TV and DVD player, but they are in need of some movies that they can have available for viewing. I have already gone through my collection and pulled 10 or so out. Comment below or feel free to email me at projectfrontlines@gmail.com if you would like to donate some goods.

Goal for today: making it to Treemont Retirement Community in Houston Texas. All of the residents have filled out cards to send to our troops! They also mentioned that they wanted to cover some of the costs of shipping - huge hooray!

What's in Store for April

After a long absence from blogging...I am back! Have a little free time again, finally! Mark will be out of town for the next couple of weeks (*sniffers*), but I am hoping to not only get things done on the troop support front, but also in the weight loss and home preparation front. I'm going to have my hands full.

For the next few weeks I am buckling down and trying to accomplish a lot in our Adopt A US Soldier efforts. Mark and I have recently began a special project, after being contacted by a military wife. She expressed her concerns about our troops on the frontlines of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Her husband's battalion has built a coffee house which has recently been named "The First Cup." This establishment is a big morale booster for the troops at their location. It is serving as a central location where soldiers can pour a cup of coffee (or tea, hot chocolate, whatever their preference) and take a moment to relax and "get away." The way we see it, this is a great opportunity to help show those troops how much they are appreciated. We are arranging a mass collection of items to ship over to what we are going to consider, a trading post. All packages will be shipped to that specific location and made available to any soldiers in that battalion. While we are focusing on coffee, tea and hot cocoa, we are also welcoming many other items.

To further the success of Project Frontlines, I will continue a collection of items throughout my neighborhood. This consists of me leaving fliers at every door in hopes that they will like to participate by leaving a few items outside their front door. We have collected throughout about half of the neighborhood so far and have accumulated almost 20 boxes full of items. I am also contacting local and national coffee distributors or shops to see if they would be willing to donate some coffee to the cause. I have received two responses here locally and they are talking it over, keep your fingers crossed!

The second focus for the month of April is going to be an upcoming event here in Katy, Texas. The Home for the Holidays Spring Gift Market is a two day shopping event in which hundreds and even thousands of shoppers come out to visit booths full of crafts and other goodies. I will be manning a booth in which we are going to be handing out information on how you can adopt a soldier, as well as offering different military themed items. The types of things we will have available are paracord key chains, paracord bracelets, bows and one or two bra's. We will have an Army and/or Navy inspired bra that resembles their uniforms. These are always big with the military wives and girlfriends. I am hoping to also have a few other things available, perhaps aprons. I have always wanted to learn more about sewing and it would be a great opportunity to get some practice in, and hopefully gain some more funds for shipping.

Aside from the actual items we will have offered, I need to put something together in which we can display these items. From past experience, my advice to anyone manning a booth, keep your items upright and as visible as possible. In the past I have laid items out across the table and it results in a lot of the shoppers missing them. They see our banner and understand we are there to inform them, but unfortunately most people need more than that (which is okay!). I am going to be putting something together that the bracelets and items can hang from. It will also look more presentable!

Hobby Lobby trip is planned for tonight - hopefully I walk away with some really neat stuff, at a really neat price...updates to come!