The Generosity Is Streaming In - StreamLight Does It Again

To paraphrase an email I just sent to Angel DelliGatti of StreamLight:

"Once again I am truly humbled by your generosity. I don't know what else to say except thank you very much. I will of course pass the word onto others about what you have done, and when I shop for lights they will be StreamLights. You folks at StreamLight are so nice it is almost unbelievable, it is people like you who really make this country a great place! I am sure that my Soldiers' Angels soldier for this year - Jamie V., and his fellow troops, will make good use of them.

I would still like to know what price you can offer these at because I would buy at least a few more to ship to the troops. Please don't ad more to the freebie pile, it would be the right thing for us to make a purchase after how nice you have been."

Why am I humbled. Well, like last year, this year I sent out a few emails making inquiries in an attempt to get discounted pricing on some things to include in this years Soldiers' Holiday Care Package(s). One of those emails was sent to StreamLight. I really did not expect them to duplicate their generosity of last year when they donated 12 flashlights and batteries to the care package effort but that is what they did then, and they are doing it gain this year! She is going to send a dozen NF2-LED lights for the package(s). As far as I can figure, the NF2 stands for NightFighter 2.

When I checked their site, this is what I found for the NightFighter LED lights:

http://www.streamlight.com/product/product.aspx?pid=32

While there is little more that I can say than I did in my above email to Ms. DelliGatti, there is something I have to say: She truly is an Angel, she lives up to her name, and how appropriate since I was put in contact with Jamie V., the soldier to whom I will be sending this year's package(s), through Soldiers' Angels!

One other thing I think I must say is that if you are considering a high quality flashlight, especially for tactical purposes, please consider StreamLight. I have used their products and can tell you they have met and exceeded my expectations in tactical flashlights just as their generosity has far surpassed even my wildest expectations.

As I mentioned in my email, I am hopeful we can also buy some lights from StreamLight, also for the troops. I figure it would be the right thing to do in light of their generosity. I realize that this year there is no way we will be able to supply each guy in our soldier's unit with a light (heck there are 26 guys in his direct unit, not 12 like our soldier from last year). That is there is no way unless you guys are extremely generous. So if you can find it in your hearts, please dig up some of your spare change or bills and send in a donation for this year's effort. So far we have gotten together a total of $255.00 including $160 of donations made via my PayPal account and $95 checks and cash.

As with last year's effort, I will document each and every penny of the donations I spend on this, and 100% of your donations will go to purchases of items to be included in the packages. I will pay for shipping charges to include boxes, tape, and postage to send the care packages to Jamie V. over in Afghanistan, and I have also made a $25.00 (included in the above total) donation toward purchases of items. I will also be donating another $25.00 out of my pocket. I suppose that Ms. DelliGatti's and StreamLights generosity has motivated me to do so - so the total of the monetary donations is now: $280.00.

To those of you who have made donations so far, money or otherwise I say THANK YOU; and likewise to those of you who will be making donations.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Donations Are Already Coming In...

...and not more than 1 minute after I posted the notice about collecting for the Soldiers' Holiday Care Package and posting the PayPal icon, I received the first donation from Al S. I have to hand it to him too because it was a generous one. Thanks Al.

All the best,
Glenn B

Soldiers' Care Package Donation - Thank You

I wanted to make sure to say thanks to Rita and Clinton and their family who donated toward the Soldiers' Care Package. That was very nice and generous of you, and your donation will help put big smiles on some soldiers' faces, I am sure of that. I thought I was going out to shop for the items last weekend, but as it turned out I did not get the chance. So this weekend I'll head out to someplace like Costco to pick up the goodies for the package. With the donation you gave, and at least a matching donation from me for goodies, it should be a pretty nice package.

Once I get the stuff, I'll take a picture of it, and I'll post it here. Along with the package, I am going to include an American Flag. My assigned soldier from Soldiers' Angels asked me to do so. He told me he and his unit will fly that flag, and they will pose with the flag for a picture, then send me the pic. Rita, you will be sure to get a copy of that picture if you want to send me your address down in SA, or an 'in care of' address up here.

Thanks again.

All the best,
Glenn B

I didn't know I could do that!

That is drag a page element to appear just above my rants. That is great, this way I can have a topic right at the top of my blog for as long as I want. Good place to put the Soldiers' Care Package donation request while it is still ongoing.

By the way, so far, I have only received one donation. I have to ask - what is up with that? Is it that people are broke, or that they don't think it a good cause, or that they do not trust me, or what? Those are not rhetorical questions either, I would appreciate some answers, thoughts, opinions, as to why only one person has made a donation to such a worthy cause. Last time around there were quite a number of donations; so I just don't get why there is only one so far this time around. So please leave me your thoughts on it, you can leave them anonymously if you want.

All the best,
Glenn B

Soldiers' Care Package Donations Update

Folks I know it is not the holiday season, but when it comes to our troops, especially those in harm's way, I would think at least a few of you would make a donation to this fund. As of tonight, I have one donation from C.V. of TN, in a pretty good amount. That one donation alone could fund a small care package for a couple of people; but I am pretty sure my readers can do better than that. As a matter of fact, I know you can do better than that because last time around, for the Soldiers' Holiday Care Packages - you guys were really generous. I know things have gotten tighter with gas prices, food prices, paper products prices, utility prices, electronics gear prices, booze prices, travel costs, and just about everything else you can imagine having gone up to the sky - but out men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces are still over in Afghanistan and Iraq fighting for us and the American way - in Afghanistan as for the ones to whom this/these package(s) will go.

So I am making a personal appeal to you to please do what you can to give a donation, even just a buck if you really cannot afford more, to help fund this effort. I would especially ask, heck I even expect, certain of you whom I have helped out in the past to make a donation. No you don't have to repay me what I sent to you, this is not payment to me anyhow; but I sure expect you to make a darned good effort to dig deep and come up with something for Jaime V (my assigned solider by Soldiers' Angels) and his unit in Afghanistan. Bear in mind that these guys and gals are now in the thick of things - as in the country where the war is escalating on a seemingly daily basis. Anything we can do for them is appreciated by them, of that I think we can be certain.

As for you who gave generously last time, I say thanks again; but I also ask you to give something again. You don't have to give as much as last time - as I said a dollar will do. If I get a hundred donations of a dollar, plus the donation I already have from C.V, plus what I will donate (at least $25 toward goodies to include in the package[s] plus the postage to ship the items), it will be a nice package or two or three that I can send to them from all of us.

I am only collecting for one month, until about August 10th at the latest. I will start sending out packages in about 2 weeks, or sooner if I reach $100 before then, and I'll keep sending out packages as long as the funds come in up until August 10th. Every penny you send will be used toward items to go into a care package. I will pay, out of my own funds, for the postage, for the shipping containers and tape, for the premium that PayPal takes right off of the top of the donations you make to this effort, and I will add $25 to $50 to the donations out of my own money. So please - if you are planning on donating - don't put it off. The sooner enough comes in, the sooner the first package(s) goes/go out.

If you want to donate, there is a donate icon on the upper right side of my main blog page. As I did last time, I will scan and document here on the blog the receipts for the items, and for the postage, and all that - and I'll probably post pictures of the items that go into the packages too.

For more info on this effort, go to: http://ballseyesboomers.blogspot.com/2008/07/soldiers-care-package.html.

Before I forget, allow me to say thanks to C.V. of TN.

All the best,
Glenn B

It Could Be Worse...and it is worse for some. The Anarchangel and family need help.

First it was the regular bills just building up on us, which we kind of caught up on. Then the money to paint my son’s room, then the money to put in a new floor in the same room because the old one was rotting (at least we are saving by doing it ourselves, and no though it started weeks ago it is not done yet). Then the kids birthdays, then Christmas and my mom’s birthday, then the vet bills for Hexi. Now the 2nd car, our 1996 Ford Taurus, is in need of mending – an alternator (again!). We probably should buy a new car, but the money is just not there right now. Oh well, if it is not one thing, then it is another, that just seems to suck to money out of the Honey Pot; and it sucks to have to take money out of savings when there is so little honey in there. It seems like we have spent more than we can afford lately, and certainly not on any extravagance. I am hoping that somehow things will level off before April so that for our double deuce anniversary I can take Linda on a 3 to 5 day cruise to the Caribbean (or maybe just a trip to the Catskills the way things have been going). I cannot imagine how tight things will become when I retire next January.

Still though, I guess things are not that bad for us in my house; and I am sure they could be a lot worse. I thank the heavens that they are as good as they are right now. Some others though are not as fortunate, such as Chris and Mel over at the Anarchangel. They have been stuck with a surprise $30,000 legal expense in a custody battle over their children. Not a spot in which I would wish to be stuck. If you think you can be of help to them, stop by their site and put whatever you can into the tip jar. Yes, I know I have ranted against tip jars on blogs before, and I still feel negative about them in general, when they are used so that someone who already has a good deal of wealth, or is even simply well enough off to make it, asks for tips so they can in essence buy toys. This though is something else altogether, this is someone in need – another couple of us from the blogger community, of the type of blogs that we read - who is trying to keep custody of their children – and in that light I already made my donation, and ask you to consider doing the same. If you cannot afford a donation, maybe you can give them some advice on how to handle the expense. Either way my guess is they will appreciate it. For more info – go here.

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.

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.

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

DONATIONS FOR SOLDIER'S CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY CARE PACKAGE

THE LINK FOR DONATIONS IS OVER AT THE TOP RIGHT OF MY BLOG'S HOME PAGE. LET'S MAKE THIS WORK, LET'S SHOW OUR RESPECT FOR AND THANKS TO THE TROOPS DURING THIS SEASON OF GIVING. MY GOAL IS AT LEAST $500 BUT $1,000 WOULD SURE BE NICE, SO IF YOU ARE GOING TO DONATE PLEASE BE AS GENEROUS AS POSSIBLE. I WILL SHOW AN ACCOUNTING OF ALL FUNDS RECEIVED, AND PICTURES OF THE ITEMS I PURCHASE TO GO INTO THE HOLIDAY PACKAGE. I AM DONATING $50.00 PLUS THE COST OF POSTAGE AND SHIPPING MATERIALS. NOTE I CANNOT DONATE TO MY OWN ACCOUNT IN PAYPAL SO I WILL ADD MY $50 IN CASH TO THE AMOUNT I GET IN DONATIONS.

I WILL ACCEPT DONATIONS FOR THE SOLDIER'S HOLIDAY PACKAGE UP UNTIL AND THROUGH DECEMBER 7, 2007; PLEASE MAKE ANY DONATIONS ON OR BEFORE THAT DATE. I WILL POST AT LEAST WEEKLY NOTICES ABOUT HOW MUCH HAS BEEN RAISED.

See my below post for more info on the holiday package for our troops, and how the donations will be spent. All donations go to gifts to be included in the package. Those flashlights I mentioned go for about at least $37 apiece. Note those are the least expensive of the Stream-Lights (Stinger flashlights) and Surefire lights; they are quality tactical lights that our guys and gals could certainly use. The wool socks go for about $12 a pair they are apparently good stuff. Other things are not quite as expensive, but are not cheap.

Anything you can give is appreciated; but as I said I hope to raise $1,000 toward this effort to show these guys we truly give a damn about them, so I am hoping for at least $10 from each of my readers, or more if you can do it. A big request, sure it is, especially at this time of year, but I think these guys and gals in our military are well worth it - I hope you do too.

NOTE: You do not have to be a registered member of PayPal in order to make a donation. Click on the donate link, then look near the bottom of the linked page to see how to donate using a credit card without being a PayPal account holder.

All the best,
Glenn B

Christmas/Holiday Shopping For The Troops...

...is something I have not yet done, but I plan to do so this year. Being sort of a traditionalist when it comes to any sort of Christmas shopping, I usually do not do so until after Thanksgiving. This year will follow suit, and beginning this weekend I will be on the lookout for items I can buy to send to my Soldiers' Angels adopted soldier. The soldier I was appointed when I signed up for Soldiers' Angels is Bob S. (I do not think I am allowed to give out his whole name due to Soldiers' Angels regulations, but if I find I can do so, I will). He is assigned to a FOB in Afghanistan (if I remember right this means forward operating base so he and his fellow troops are in the thick of things over there). I am supposed to write to him frequently, and now and again send him some sort of care package. I must admit that I have been lax in contacting him as of late, last time has to be over a month ago, but I will make up for that.

What I am planning to do this year is to make up a really nice care package for him and his companion troops for this holiday season. Call it a Christmas package, a Hanuka package, a holiday package or a care package, it does not matter all that much to me, but this one for the Christmas season will be nicer than the other two I already sent to him. I plan to include some quality gear in this one; things like Stinger or Surefire flashlights, a lot of batteries for them (and these are expensive lithium batteries not your typical alkaline junk), some wool blend socks (yes it gets cold over there, and I want to put at least a dozen pairs of these into the box), some hand warmers (as used by hunters), a few folding knives (maybe not the best quality ones but certainly something that will stand up to good hard use though I have to check to see if this is legal), some disposable body wipes (always appreciated from what I understand), light sticks (the glow sticks that last up to 12 hours), anything else I can think of that will help our young men and women survive their time in their godforsaken assignments.

In this regard I am going to do something I have not done before, something that I shun when done for personal gain, but to which I have often in the past contributed when done for a good cause. I am going to ask my readers to make donations to a Holiday Care Package Fund that I will set up through my PayPal account. While I have an account, I still need to figure out how to direct payments only to this cause, and get an icon to place on my blog for those payments. I should have that done within the next week or so, and the link to the Care Package fund will appear at the top right of my blog home page. Any donations that are made to the fund will go toward the purchase of items to be included within the care package. I will spend every penny donated to the fund on such items, and this means I will pay for the PayPal fee out of my own pocket (yes they charge for someone to receive funds, but not for someone to send funds, so while you get to send them with no fee, I have to pay a percentage to accept them). Postage for the package will be paid by me, as will the cost of the packaging supplies. I also will make a decent donation to the care package fund myself, probably to the tune of about $50. I am hoping that I can raise a minimum of $500, but I would hope for more than that, closer to $1,000. I do not have a really large readership, but if you think this to be a good cause, and if you think you can spare some cash towards it, I would ask that you each try to donate at least $10 to it through PayPal, then again even a dollar would be nice. (By the way, PayPal is pretty easy to join, and I do not think there is any fee involved since when I signed up there was not.) The more my readers can donate, the more I can purchase to send to Bob S. and his comrades in arms. So I can send one flashlight and one pair of socks and maybe a box of wipes with my own contribution; or with generous contributions from each of you I will be able to send a dozen flashlights, a case of wipes, a box or three of glow sticks, and so on.

I plan to send the package out about 2 to 3 weeks before Christmas, and hope that means it will arrive there in time for the holidays. I will include a note to Bob about how the package was funded, and I will sign it from all of us who will have made donations. I will also ask Bob to make sure that the package is divided out to his fellow soldiers, so as many as possible in his unit receive at least one gift regardless of their religious beliefs or lack of them. It's a season of giving, and we are giving not based upon the faith of the recipients, but rather upon their service to us as United States Military Service Personnel. Remember too that you do not have to be a member of any particular faith to make a donation, you are doing it for the troops. I just picked the season because in my Catholic upbringing it was the tradition to give at Christmas; and even though I no longer practice any religion, I keep up the tradition of giving gifts at this time of year because it is a good tradition no matter your faith or lack of it. Giving to our service people during the holiday season, when they are thousands of miles from home and loved ones is certainly an excellent way to thank them for their service, don't you think? If you agree with me, please help me out on this one so we can show them we truly care while they are stuck on foreign soil, doing battle to keep us free, during what should be a time of year spent with family and other loved ones.

By the way, if Bob S., by some miracle, winds up on home leave at that time, I will ask him for another soldier in his unit to whom to direct the package, or I will ask Soliders' Angels for another solider to whom I can send the package.

All the best,
Glenn B.

GO NAVY

GO NAVY, GO NAVY, GO NAVY

If you don't know why I just typed in GO NAVY, see the previous post, and see the donation icon on the top right of my page.

All the best,

Glenn B