An Email From Bob S in Afghanistan

Here is the complete text of an email I received today from Bob S over in Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan about the three Soldiers' Christmas/Holiday Packages they have received so far (they should receive the last one in the near future):

We have received all 3 boxes. The flashlights were really appreciated. The mornings and nights now having been darker longer and getting darker sooner. We had some military issued ones but they are made by the lowest bidder and last about as long as that too. Some of the guys heard of the lights before and some have used them in there civilian job. They knew the quality and product you sent was definitely sent from the heart. We took some of the things out of the boxes and sent it to the smaller bases that dont have many soldiers or get much of a variety of food or stuff for the local kids.Everything you sent was much appreciated and given out to the guys on Xmas eve. In fact one guy from the admin "weenie" section took a knife when they first came in instead of waiting like I told him. Well about 3 days later at the Post Office he cut himself messing around/showing it off. Amazing how God gets people back for doing the wrong thing. Told him if he would have left the knife alone to begin with it would have never happen. He thought he needed stitches and we all told him to put 2 band aids on it and call a priest who cares. All the stuff you all sent was very much appreciated and brought along of smiles and happiness to all of us here.

We all want to thank you for the support and assistance.

So as you can see, from this email and the previous one from Bob, your donations and the gifts they purchased, were well appreciated by Bob S. and the troops. What was very nice to see is that, in the true spirit of Christmas, Bob and his unit shared some of the items with others units. You can all feel of yourselves that you have done one heck of a good thing.

As for the part about the soldier who got cut with the knife, I guess what goes around comes around, and sometimes it is pretty sharp when it does. Hopefully that guy learned a lesson and really only needed band aides.

All the best,
Glenn B

An Email From Bob S

Here is the full text of an email I just received, minutes ago, from Bob S. about the Holiday packages we sent to him.

"We all wanted to express our deepest and sicerest Thank You for the the wounderful things you have sent us. We have tried the crockpot several times already. It has made chicken, ramen noodle, and vegetable stew and today it made ham, steak, mushrooms, rice and jalepeno pepper stew. The weather has been in the high 20s in the morning and maybe mid 40s during the day. It smells really good coming into the office during the day for lunch and smell the "homemade bachelor away from home smell what is cooking today?" We have others that tend to come to our office just to see what good stuff we have cooking or available to put in their pocket for snacks. Many soldiers come by our office to see if we have anything good to eat instead of going to the mess hall. We have a bread maker that has made many loaves of various types of bread.The many things you all sent has made many people happy and has reinforced many friendships. We all appreciate your support to all of us here and THNAK YOU.Wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year."

It sounds to me as if our contributions and the items we sent have made a smash for Bob, his unit, and apparently some soldiers from other units. Folks you did a nice and good thing. I sent Bob a reply email today with the names of each and everyone of you who contributed and made this possible. He already knew it was a group effort, but I wanted to make sure he had your names to make it more personal for the holidays.

I also asked him to make sure to tell me if he received the boxes with the knives, and the flashlights, just want to make sure they received everything. When I hear more from him on this, I'll let you know.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year,
Glenn B

Soldiers' Christmas/Holiday Package - Fire 4 (or is it 5)

Whatever the number, I sent out the last Soldiers' Holiday package today. No it will not make it there for Christmas, but maybe by New Year's Day. If not, as Bob S. told me, whenever they receive it will be a holiday. This one included 12 pairs of Merino Wool Socks, 3 Bobble Heads (Pro-Wrestling), some wrestling magazines, a bag of dried fruit, 2 boxes of Crystal Lite drinks (one lemonade and one iced tea), a box of Quaker Oats snack bars, a large box of Tootsie Roll Pops, 5 tins of Husky smokeless tobacco, and a National Geographic magazine. The wrestling mags and bobble heads were donated by someone on my job (thanks Carmin). All the rest came from the remainder of the donations that you gave. Just for the record, I used $20 of the donations to mail this package. All the other postage on the other packages were paid for by me, but I am tapped right now, and had to resort to using $20 of the donation money for postage. Since I donated $70 cash to the donation fund (exclusive of the prior postage I paid), that $20 came from my cash donation, and not from any money any of you sent to me for this effort. I hope that is acceptable, but if I get any complaints, I'll buy another $20 worth of stuff and send it to Bob and his unit.

I have not heard anything from Bob yet on the other packages, I guess he has not received them yet; but I guess he should get them soon. As soon as he lets me know what he and his unit thought of them, I'll let you know.

All the best,
Glenn B

Latest Soldier's Holiday Pakage

After the theater tonight, I went shopping for the contents for the last Soldiers' Holiday package from the fund donated to me for that cause. I'll post more once I get it packed up and shipped, but for now just wanted to let all of you know I did not forget this one.

All the best,
Glenn B

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

Soldiers' Holiday Package - More Shopping Done

Okay folks, we are getting close to the end of all of these Soldiers' Christmas/Holiday Package(s) posts if only because today is the last day for donations; and what a coincidence it is also Pearl Harbor Day. In addition today was another shopping day for items for the packages. Despite being pretty much under the weather and feeling miserable today, I decided to get out of the house late this afternoon and pick up some items for another package. I purchased 12 folding knives at Dick's Sporting Goods for $260.57. I picked out two models of knives, one from Buck - the Buck Bantam, and one from Gerber - the Gerber Paraframe I (see the pic, and allow me to say sorry for the quality or lack thereof of quality in the photo, but I forgot our digital camera in my office yesterday, and there it still sits, so I had to use a cell phone camera). They look to be a pretty decent quality for the price, and they certainly are manufactured by well known knife making companies; my guess is the troops will like em a lot.

I also got several tee-shirts, and a bunch of baseball style caps - the caps all with WWF logos and the t-shirts all with wrestling pictures on them. These were donated to me by a young lady - Carmen - with whom I work in my office. I imagine they will make a big hit with the troops in Afghanistan. I tried to take a pic of them but it came out worse than the one of the knives - sorry.

Right now I have two packages all packed and ready to go to the post office tomorrow. One package contains: the knives; the other one holds: the crock-pot, the t-shirts and caps, candies, a package of 36 AA batteries, a 12 pack of decks of playing cards, a Gingerbread House kit,, chewing gum, and a box of 25 Romeo Y Julieta Bully cigars. So far I have collected a total of $670 in monetary donations to the fund, and I have spent $571.26, leaving us: $98.74 for a some more gifts for our soldiers. I have not found decent heavy weight wool socks yet, so maybe this remainder will go for the socks if I can find some nice ones. I'll try to get whatever I can this weekend, and then ship them out by early this coming week. Again thanks to all of you who either donated money, donated link space, or donated items for the package effort. This would not be possible without all of you.

All the best,

Glenn B

Two More Days (more or less)...

...and donations will be closed for the Soldiers' Christmas/Holiday Package. I will accept checks mailed to me, and postmarked, on or before the 7th of December, and will accept PayPal payemnts made up and through December 7th. Any PayPal payments for that effort received after the 7th of December 2007, will be returned minus any fee charged to me by PayPal. Any checks received with a December 8th or later post mark will be returned to the sender if the sender includes a return address, otherwise I'll just tear them up. Not trying to be a hard ass or anything like that, just trying to keep this manageable. So if you want to donate, please do so on or before December 7, 2007. Thanks very much for the donations to date.

All the best,
Glenn B

Soldiers' Holiday package - latest items

I did some shopping for package number 2 last night. So far I have the Crock-pot (already purchased that last week, but have not sent it yet and it will be in package 2), and some new items as seen in the pic. Click on the pic to enlarge it.

The items are, starting from the 12 o'clock position and going clockwise: Gingerbread House Kit (with ready made gingerbread pieces and all the trimmings), a case of 12 packs of playing cards, chewing gum, Hershey's Candies variety pack, a 36 pack of AA batteries, a box of 25 Bully cigars by Romeo Y Julieta. They will be squeezed into a box with the Crock-Pot previously pictured in another post. All the other previously bought items and the flashlights shipped yesterday.

By the way, that box of cigars is a good one. It contains 25 cigars, and each of them went for $3.80, yes $95 for the box at Costco! I don't know about you, but when I smoked I thought a nickel cigar was good enough for me, you know the same ones Clint Eastwood smoked in The Good The Bad and The Ugly or one of those Spaghetti Westerns. I figure though that these soldiers deserve much better than what was good enough for me in the way back times of yesteryear. The Romeo y Julietas came highly recommended by 3 people to zero recommendations for another type of cigar.

I also went shopping for some folding knives and quality wool socks. I struck out on both, but did see some fairly nice Buck and Gerber knives at Dick's Sporting Goods for $19.99 each. I would like to see if I can find them locally at a better price, if not I may go with them. As for the socks, I could only find medium weight wool socks, and was hoping to get these guys something to really help them face the Afghan winter. Shopping again tomorrow or Friday, and hopefully one of two more packages (2 & 3) out by this weekend.

The donation amount is now up to $600! With the flashlights donated by StreamLight, and that amount of cash from you guys, all I can say is wow - what nice holiday spirit! Once again thanks to your donations this is all possible, and thanks to StreamLight there is more cash to be spent on gifts. So these guys are getting a lot of nice things - but I must say: the nicest thing they are receiving is your thoughtfulness and your generosity. Happy Hanukkah to those of you who celebrate it, and Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it. Happy New Year to all.

All the best,
Glenn B

PS: Forgot to picture the receipt earlier, so I updated this blog with said pic on 12/06/07.

Fire One - Package Away

The first of what I suppose will be at least 3 and maybe as many as 5 holiday packages for Bob S. and his unit at FOB Bagram was sent out today. Thanks to all of you for your donations and help to date. By the way, yes this is a picture of Bob and three friendly locals in Afghanistan who work with Bob and his unit. I thought it would be nice if you got to see the soldier who will be receiving the packages for himself and his unit. No spring chicken, he is married and has teenaged children - yet he is over there in Afghanistan doing the right thing for his country (and that would mean for us). I can not tell you all how surprised I am that this package thing has worked out, and that so many of you have been as generous as you have been to date. It is nice to know there are AMERICANS who give a damn regardless of political viewpoints, religious affiliation, ethnicity, race, gender, national origin, and all other types of stuff that sometimes gets in the way of doing the right thing. You my friends have done the right thing by donating, and or helping with links to the donation icons. I don't think soldiers like Bob and his unit will soon forget how nice you all have been. I certainly will not.

Here is a copy of the email I sent to Bob S. to let him know to expect this package:

"Hi Bob,

I sent out one package to you and the guys today. Please let me know when you get it. It is a 28 pound box (I think that was the weight), it is loaded with spices and has some flashlights inside of it. I don't know if you have seen my blog about the lights, as I recall when you tried to view my blog it was blocked by the military. If you have seen it though, then you know what you are getting. If not, let it be a partial surprise, and let me just let me say for now - you are getting some very nice lights courtesy of StreamLight company who donated them to me absolutely no charge. As for those lights, there are 12 of them, one for each guy in your unit (I hope I got it right that there are 12 of you).

I also have other items and goodies for you and your unit. I will send something else out - probably tomorrow - don't use the spices until you get the other package too - you will know the one when it gets there by what is inside. I'll keep you informed as I mail them out. After that there may be one or two other packages in the near future - sent before Christmas, but who can tell when they will arrive; I imagine a lot of mail is being sent to you guys this time of year. I think you will like the contents I have planned for the other packages, and I hope you will be able to share them as much as possible among your unit and with other units. Right now I need to go shopping for a few more things for the packages.

One other thing before I go: I did not put any note or anything like that in today's package. I forgot. I wanted to add a holiday card from all those who made donations toward the package. I will do that with one of the other packages. For now let me just say there have been about 16 - 18 people so far, including myself of course, who have donated quite a bit, about $525 to date; and of course StreamLight who donated the lights. As for the money, all of it is being used to buy the contents of the packages I am sending, every penny of it. The postage is being taken care of separately. I am only saying something about this so that you and the guys in your unit realize this is a group effort, and there is a bunch of really nice people involved who are all thinking of you guys and wishing you the best, wishing you Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays, and hoping you will all be home soon both safe and sound. They realize the sacrifice you guys are making by being over there while we are here, and they are trying to make things a bit easier for you. By the way, thanks to the folks at StreamLight - you are getting a whole lot more than I had originally planned - those lights are not cheap - so their donation allowed for money that would have otherwise paid for the lights to go for other things. They did a really nice things, I was amazed, and I hope you guys will be too.

All the best,
Glenn B"

I'll keep you all informed as I send out the packages, and I'll fill you in once I get a response from Bob and his unit about them.

All the best,
Glenn B

Weekly Update - Soldiers' Holiday Package

I'll keep this fairly brief (for me), if only because most of my blog in the past week has been devoted to this effort.

To date I have received $425 toward the package fund, including my own $50 donation to the fund (excluding the cost I will pay out of my pocket for shipping and shipping materials). This money is from a total of only 15 donations (including my own). If you can or cannot afford it, think of our troops overseas who may possibly be wounded, killed, or just far from home either freezing their behinds off in a foxhole, or spending the holidays on an military base on foreign soil in a hostile land over the holidays. Am I trying to shame you into giving, nah no way, not my style. Am I trying to kick your butts into gear - you betcha. I am just trying to get you to remember these guys even if with only a dollar. By the way, one of the donations I received was from 2 young girls, sisters, who broke open their piggy bank to donate $9 and change, then their mom rounded it off to $10, and sent it to me via PayPal. Here is part of what the mom wrote to me:

"My daughters, age 6 & 7, are excited to donate the contents of their piggy banks, (9 dollars and 18 cents, which I am rounding up to 10 bucks) to this cause. "

These two girls and their mom did a really nice thing for our soldiers, my thanks to them. If they can do it, so can you, a buck probably will not even make you break your piggy bank. See the links at the upper right hand side of my blog to donate via PayPal. You do not need a PayPal account to donate, and PayPal does not charge you a fee to donate (they charge me the fee to accept payments, and I will cover those costs out of my pocket).

I also received 12 tactical flashlights, with extra lithium batteries, from STREAMLIGHT absolutely free of charge! Can you say THANK YOU STREAMLIGHT!!! Wow that was nice of them. I made a price inquiry and they sent free lights.

Today I went shopping for items for the package(s). I picked up: A 6 quart Crock-Pot (something these guys requested), Various seasonings and spices (they said they wanted to cook for themselves for a change, so I guess they can cook it slowly in the crock-pot while out on patrol), a package of Chap-Sticks, Zip Lock Freezer Bags (these have lots of applications in sandy environments), a box of chewing gum, hard candies, chocolates and other candies. I spent $150.87 today on the items mentioned above, the Crock-Pot was only about $40, but are spices ever expensive, and I got nice sized jars of them! Thank goodness for Costco (click on the receipt to enlarge).

Other items I plan to purchase are: at least one box of 25 good cigars, possibly 12 pairs of high quality wool socks (one pair per each person in the unit), 12 folding knives (I have the Buck Bantam 285 BLW model in mind), sharpening stones (12 - one for each guy in the unit), other snacks (something of a holiday nature), and whatever else I can think of with any funds left over.

I have decided to split this into 3 or 4 holiday packages - still all for the same unit. This will make the package less bulky, and in the event one of them gets delayed, lost or stolen, the others are likely to make it through. I will probably send some of the stuff before the end of this week, and hope to have everything shipped by December 10th or thereabouts.

I hope to remember to take pics of the contents of each package before I ship them, and to post the pics on this blog once the items ship.

To those of you who have contributed, and/or provided links to my page for this effort: THANKS.

All the best,
Glenn B

PS: if you are wondering why I input all the below keywords, well I want to get as many people as possible who read my blog to read this post.

Generosity Almost Beyond My Belief...

...is what I think I just received from a certain flashlight manufacturer. I am trying to confirm an offer I just received, and which I believe I read correctly but am still quite shocked by it if I did read it right, in which they will send me 12 tactical flashlights for the Soldiers' Holiday Package absolutely free of charge!!! I do not want to mention the name of the company yet, or say which product they offered until I have actually confirmed this great offer........


Hold the presses, I just received an email from the company as I was writing this post. I guess I can now name the company: STREAMLIGHT, and tell you the light that will be sent will be the Streamlight Night Fighter 2. Here is what the email to me says:

Dear Glenn,

You read it correctly! I will send you the 12 lights with a pack of extra batteries per light "No Charge". This is just a small token of our appreciation for these soldiers dedication especially at a time which our troops are in harms way each and every day. Please send them our Thanks and Best Wishes on the upcoming Holidays and let them know we do appreciate what they do for us and are thinking about them each day.

I will ship them UPS ground to your home address as noted below!

All the best to you and happy holidays!

Angel DelliGatti
Inside Sales Manager

My sincere thanks go to STREAMLIGHT and to Angel DelliGatti whom I am sure had to pull some strings to get this done, and who is taking a chance on me because Angel does not know me. I will not disappoint, and I will also recommend their products to others in the future.

So folks, this means because of their great generosity at STREAMLIGHT, the money I have received in donations to date, and any more to come, can and will be used for other items to be included in the care package. This is going to be one heck of a nice package for these soldiers, and maybe, just maybe, we will all have made a bit of a difference for them this holiday season (a truly nice difference) while they are on foreign sands defending freedom, and helping to keep us safe from terrorists. It is truly a wonderful thing that we are not forgetting these soldiers during a time when we will be celebrating, and they will be far from home and loved ones.



All the best,
Glenn B

Maybe This Will Be The Light...

...since SureFire Flashlights was nice enough to respond to the inquiry I sent to them, and they let me know that they offer a regular 25% discount to LEOs. Which light you may ask, the one at this link: http://www.surefire.com/maxexp/main/co_disp/displ/prrfnbr/878/sesent/00, and in the pic below.

With the discount from SureFire, that would make the cost of these lights $27.00 each, the most affordable ones I have found so far in this type of light. The only thing that I do not like about it is that it has a polymer body instead of Aluminum. That is not the worst thing in a flashlight. I do like the Streamlight Night Con that I mentioned in my previous post much more because of its Xenon and red LED bulbs that make it more versatile, and its aluminum body that makes it stronger; but if I cannot get a better or matching price on that one then it will likely be this Surefire G2 Nitrolon.

As I figure it, a dozen of these lights would cost: $324, and two boxes of extra lithium batteries would go for: $31.50, with shipping free on orders over $99. So the total for the lights and batteries would be: $355.50. That is very doable as to price because the donations already amount to: $325.00, and I was told another check is in the mail (could be a dollar, could be more, but the amount keeps going up) thanks to you.

I also received a reply to my price inquiry from Optics Planet. The best price they offered was not close to the offer from Surefire.

The Streamlight company itself has not yet replied to my inquiry. I will give them until the weekend to send me a reply. If they do not, then the above mentioned Surefire G2 Nitrolon light will most likely be the one. That way I will be able to include some other goodies in the package besides just lights, and batteries.

All the best,

Glenn B

Soldiers' Holiday Package Donations

The total amount of the donations to date is: $325.00. My thanks to those who have made donations to date.

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

The Soldiers' Holiday Package Fund...

...has had a few contributions made to it. So far I have received $150 into my PayPal account (only 3 donations) for the fund; add to that $30 cash that I was promised by my brother-in-law, and $50 that I will contribute and the total to date is $230.00 (5 donations in total so far). That is a nice amount so far, but I am hopeful that more will come in by the December 7, 2007 deadline for contributions. A few folks whom I know personally asked me for my mailing address and will send me checks so I am pretty certain the amount will grow.

What surprises me is that none of the readers of my blog have made a contribution. So far every contribution I have received, or every inquiry I have received about the fund drive, has come from someone who is a personal friend such as folks I know from work, folks I know from the LIHS or a relative. This has had me wondering why none of my blog readers seem interested. I guess it could be several things: maybe you folks are doing your own things regarding such a good cause and planning to send your own holiday package, maybe you do not think it a good cause, maybe you are waiting for some extra cash (please don't wait beyond the deadline), maybe you just cannot afford this with the holidays coming (please think of what our troops allow us to enjoy at the cost of their own sacrifices), maybe you do not know me enough to trust me (see my feedback at eBay.com and at GunBroker.com - use gbarthgwt for my user name at each to check the feedback), maybe you thought it a good idea but have forgotten about fund drive, maybe you are just a procrastinator like me, maybe you do not trust PayPal (I have used them for years now without problems). I am hopeful though that some of my blog readers will help out for this cause. As I said earlier, and I'll say again, you do not have to send much - send a dollar if you can, but if you can afford more then send whatever you can afford.

If for some reason you think this effort is not worthy of a contribution then please leave me feedback to let me know why. You do not have to do so by logging on, do it anonymously. If you do think it a worthy effort, please make a contribution before the deadline, but the sooner the better so I ca start making contacts to purchase the flashlights and other gear hopefully at a discount.

All the best,
Glenn B