Becky’s latest hobby — which I think is really cool — is sending letters, care packages and various requested items to American soldiers stationed overseas through BooksForSoldiers.com. We can’t afford to break the bank on this effort, but a lot of the stuff they want is surprisingly cheap (in some cases, they just want letters, even from strangers, which kinda breaks your heart), and it makes you feel good to actually “support the troops” in some tangible, even if very small, way.
It’s sometimes amusing, and sometimes heart-rending, to read the lists of things that soldiers are requesting. (You have to be an “Official BFS Volunteer” to view the troop requests; it’s free to join, but to become an official volunteer, you have to get the application notarized.)
For example, it’s kinda funny that some of these guys, after spending their “on duty” time fighting real-life insurgents with real-life weapons, want to spend their “off duty” time playing violent video games and shooting each other with squirt guns. Then again, it serves as a reminder that these are young people, mostly young men — barely older than boys, really — who have volunteered to put themselves in harm’s way, away from their families, in defense of the freedoms that so many of us take for granted (a noble decision whatever one thinks of their current mission). That fact hits home repeatedly when you read one request after another for video games, DVDs, and glossy magazines like Maxim.
On the tear-jerking front, your heart hurts when you read soldiers’ requests for gifts to send home to their children for birthdays they’re missing, or the request from an expectant father who wanted baby books so he could audio-record himself reading them aloud, then send the tapes to his wife so that she can play the recordings to her belly, allowing their unborn child to hear its daddy’s voice.
Anyway, I’d encourage anyone with a bit of free time to get involved with this. It gives you a warm fuzzy feeling to think you might be brightening somebody’s day “over there.” And if you don’t have the time or energy to send stuff yourself, but you still want to help in some way, make a donation via my PayPal link — I’ll put all PayPal contributions received for the remainder of this month into Becky’s send-stuff-to-the-soldiers fund. Here’s the link (it’s also in the left sidebar):
|
Categories: Friends & Family, Iraq, Iran & the Middle East
|
July 15th, 2007 at 3:36:08 pm
Too cool! I had heard of this site once and tried to get people at my old job involved but never could do much with it. (Cheap bastards!) Alas, I just started a new job and am up to my eyeballs with work lately so this wouldn’t be a good time for me personally to join in any volunteer effort but I donated to your paypal so Becky will have a little extra to send on.
July 15th, 2007 at 3:47:42 pm
Very Very Commendable
July 15th, 2007 at 6:05:35 pm
I dig. Cool idea.
July 15th, 2007 at 8:58:44 pm
This is so cool! My hats off to Becky for doing this! I think I am going to start as well! Thanks for the hat tip!
July 15th, 2007 at 9:30:26 pm
BTW….having just registered for their site…I can’t believe how many people found them from Michael Moore’s website!
July 16th, 2007 at 4:47:37 pm
B&B, I LOVE that you are doing this! When Jaime was in Iraq, I sent many care packages, both of random stuff (gummy bears, baby wipes) and directly from online book vendors. I also enlisted those around me to send care packages to the whole group, and I know they greatly appreciated it. People are sometimes too lazy, or just too busy, to do this on their own, and they might not know someone to send a package to. But, all the contraband really makes a difference when you’re living in a shit whole. Plus, it helped me deal with the deployment that people around me cared enough to send some stuff over.
When Jaime returned from Iraq the second time, after the injury, he played Battlefield Vietnam every hour of the day. I thought he was crazy; the guy almost got blown up and yet all he wanted to do was play more war games. But, in a weird way, it’s an outlet, I guess. He must have missed the real thing because he went back a third time.
July 16th, 2007 at 4:48:51 pm
B&B, I LOVE that you are doing this! When Jaime was in Iraq, I sent many care packages, both of random stuff (gummy bears, baby wipes) and directly from online book vendors. I also enlisted those around me to send care packages to the whole group, and I know they greatly appreciated it. People are sometimes too lazy, or just too busy, to do this on their own, and they might not know someone to send a package to. But, all the contraband really makes a difference when you’re living in a shit hole. Plus, it helped me deal with the deployment that people around me cared enough to send some stuff over.
When Jaime returned from Iraq the second time, after the injury, he played Battlefield Vietnam every hour of the day. I thought he was crazy; the guy almost got blown up and yet all he wanted to do was play more war games. But, in a weird way, it’s an outlet, I guess. He must have missed the real thing because he went back a third time.