Fire 2 and Fire 3 - Two More Holiday Packages off to the Troops

To All Who Helped Out,

Today I sent out two more packages, of the remaining items I have bought to date, to Bob S. and his unit over at FOB Bagram, Afghanistan. I have just under $100 left over, and expect a bit more from someone who promised me some money, but said it would be late. No more donations please, the donations icon has been removed from the page as yesterday's deadline has passed.

In all we did pretty good by ourselves and for our soldiers. We raised $670 in money to date (I may receive a bit more as I said above), add to that a good number of t-shirts, baseball style caps, and some pins (all pro-wrestling related), and do not forget the flashlights from StreamLight, nor the links provided from other bloggers to this effort that resulted in some donations, and I have to say it was a great effort. You can all pat yourselves on the back for a job well done.

I still have not sent Bob and his unit a holiday card or cards. I want to wait for the last package, and then I'll include the card(s) in it. I did send them an email today, telling him two more packages on on their ways, and I gave him the list of all those who contributed to date. If the list grows because of any donations I receive in the mail, then I'll add those names to the cards when I send them.

Here is a copy of the letter I sent out them via email today:

Hi Bob,

Just wanted to say Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all the guys in your unit from all of the nice folks who were kind enough to make donations through me for your holiday packages; so far I have mailed out three of them - one a few days ago or so, and two more today.

So without further delay here is the list of folks who made cash donations to your holiday packages, in about the order in which I received them:

Donors For Soldiers' Holiday package:

Glenn Bartley
Ed Barton
Al Steinmark
Dennis McCarthy
Nelson Chen
Gary Binkley
Romedio Viola
Louis Boehner
Alex Pinno
John Heiser
Jen From Pen of Jen
Ed Bennett
Shelley Smith and daughters (WOW - these two young girls broke open their piggy banks to contribute)
Dominick DicoLandrea
Muriel Key
Enzo Cannizzo
Don Swiatocha
Marcos Castro
Bob McCrossen
Pasvorn Boonmark
Larry Hill Border Patrol Store
Peter Angelino
Rich Meyer jr.

All of the above donated cash to the donation fund. Some folks gave a little, some gave quite the amount, all depending on what they could afford; but all of these folks gave some money that went toward helping out this effort to make the holidays a bit nicer for the guys/gals in your unit. Two (should be a few) other folks helped out in other ways:

Carmen Ricci: Carmen gave the T-shirts, pins, and caps you will find in one of the boxes, and she also donated some videos - some for the troops, some for the kids you meet over there (those have yet to be sent - no more room in today's boxes).

Mighty Mom of: http://texassiren.blogspot.com/ and Jen of http://penofjen.blogspot.com/ these two ladies also helped out by providing links from their site to the Soldiers' Holiday Package thing on my blog and I am pretty certain that at least a couple of donors became aware of this effort through their sites with the links to mine.

Mrs. Angel DelliGatti a manager at STREAMLIGHT who arranged for the donation of those great STREAMLIGHT flashlights to you and the guys/gals in your unit, one for each of you.

All of the above folks are very indebted to all of you who serve, especially those of you who are in foreign lands during time of war. We realize that you are all making a patriotic effort, and a great sacrifice being there each and every day that you serve, and we wanted to let you know that you have not been forgotten, you have not been forsaken, and you have not fallen out of memory; you will always hold a dear place in our hearts for the service you have given to our great Nation. Besides what is in the packages they also send there heart felt thanks to you for your service, and send wishes for Happy Holidays to all of you who serve regardless of faith.

As for the actual packages: some of the contents of the first one, the spices, should not really be used until you receive the bigger box I mailed out today. You will understand why when you open both of them. Regarding the 12 flashlights from StreamLight, there is one for each of you, we all hope they are something that will really help you out. I also shipped 12 folding knives to you today, they are in there own priority flat rate box. I think you and the guys/gals in your unit will like them - one for each of you. As for everything else that we shipped, please distribute them among the troops as you see fit. There is candy (maybe for the local kids or for you guys), there are cigars (a box of 25, really good cigars from what I understand, maybe one for each guy in the unit who smokes, and maybe the rest for a unit just coming back from a tough patrol, and I guess give one to the base commander - but that is up to you). Some other stuff too, good things, we hope you enjoy it all. Hopefully you will receive these packages before Christmas, but if not, then as you said whenever you open them will be a holiday. There should be at least one more package coming after the ones I have already mailed to make it a total of 4. I'll let you know when that one goes out.

This is the least we could do to show our appreciation and respect for you guys; hopefully you will get to enjoy the things we sent and your holidays will be a little nicer because of them.

All the best,
Glenn B and everyone else listed above

When I look in the mirror, I am happy to see, some of that nine year old boy, who used to be me. ©

I hope you think I did well in expressing our feelings to the troops about there sacrifice and service, and that I did a good job sending our Holiday wishes to them. Thank you all so very much, and may each and everyone of you and your family members and loved one enjoy a Joyous Holiday Season.

All the best,
Glenn B