Monday, November 26, 2007

This Could Be The Light...

... for the Soldiers' Christmas/Holiday Package. It is called a Twin-Task 2L Night Com, and it is basically a combination LED/Xenon Flashlight. It sounds like a winner for use by military personnel in the field. It is available at sites like: Optics Planet and Botach Tactical. The military and tactical aspects of this light seem right on to me. A fairly high intensity Xenon bulb for bright light, and red LEDs for night work to protect night vision, and to be less visible to the enemy. It is made of an aluminum body, with polycarbonate lens.

I am hopeful that I could get a dozen of these at a discount; but once again I have to say that all depends on how much we can raise for these guys. By the way, I got another $25 from someone tonight, this was cash delivered to me in person. So the total so far is: $290 including my own donation. That would buy 7.43 of these lights at the best price I have found so far with shipping included; and bear in mind there are a dozen soldiers in this unit. Twelve of these flashlights would go for about: $468 shipped. After that I am hoping to add some snacks, some cigars, some personal toiletries to the package.

I will make a pledge to you that if we raise another $100 within the next 24 hours, I will blog about something else in my rant on Wednesday other than this package thing. Otherwise, I make no promises about my blog, I may just have to stick to straight fund raising for this project even at the risk I will lose readers. There is no conundrum here for me, doing this is a good thing.

I am shooting for a total of at least $750, only you guys can make it happen. Once again I am hoping you will find it in your hearts to help support our troops even if only in this very small scale manner.

All the best,
Glenn B

Harping, pestering, pleading, begging!

Five donations to the Soldiers' Christmas/Holiday Fund have been made to date via PayPal. The total donated via PayPal has been: $185.00, subtract the PayPal transaction fee charged to my account by PayPal and that leaves $178.13. Of course I will make up the money that PayPal charged for the transaction fees, so the troops will be getting gifts on which every penny of your donations will have been spent, that amounts to $185 so far donated through PayPal.

I have another pledge of $30.00, and one of $50.00 (my own donation plus shipping fees and transaction fees). That makes the total, for the actual donations right now, $265.00 - just above the half way mark of $500 for the low end of what I hope to put together, and just above one quarter of the high end of how much I hope we can gather. I have a few other folks whom I know who have made inquiries, so I expect the total will keep going up. You all have until 7th December to make a donation to the fund. On that day or the next I'll report on the total received, and on what I plan to purchase with the donated funds (depends upon how much is donated). I implore you to give your best effort for this cause, be a dollar or more, it will be appreciated and go to good use.

Bob has asked for consumables and nothing special. He did say he wants something he does not need to carry back home. I am still dead set on buying those tactical flashlights for him and the troops though. They are small, very small, only a few inches long; yet if they do not want to carry them home, I will suggest to them that they pass them onto other US soldiers before they leave. They, or at least Bob, has about another 6 months to go over there. I am pretty certain they would be amenable to leaving those lights behind to shine on for other soldiers, but that will be their choices to make.

Other than the lights, I guess most of what we will send will be consumables of one type or another. Batteries for the lights, body wipes, glow sticks, some snacks for the holidays, and so on, are all consumables. Oh, and there was another suggestion for something to send: Cigars. If I can send them legally to the troops, they will be included too.

All the best,
Glenn B