All About Kimberly

Sailing Along the Life of Single Parenthood

Tag Archives: military

Another Way to Support Our Troops

If you aren’t a regular reader of my blog, you may not know that my brother is currently serving in the US Army and stationed in Iraq.  While I’ve always been a supporter of our military, I now have a renewed vigor to support our military and their families.

You’ll notice my posts from time to time and today I have another way for you to support our troops. Before I tell you that though, I wanted to tell you some of the other ways that I’ve already posted about.

 

  • Soldier’s Angels (you’ll notice their bar about half way down between my posts) – THIS IS A SUPER ORGANIZATION and they have some special ways to support the troops all the time – but also some targeted Christmas ways so go check them out and consider Adopting a Soldier.
  • Shop at Sears – They go out of their way to support members of their staff that serve in the Reserves.

And today, I have another way to support our troops this holiday season: 

Purchase an Operation Santa Sign for your Yard and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Fisher House who support our troops and their families.  These are really cute signs and only cost $13.  

From the Opeartion Santa site:

As part of Santa’s ongoing support for our military personnel and their families, $2.00 of each “OFFICIAL SANTA LANDING ZONE YARD SIGN” purchased between October 1 and December 31, 2008 will be donated to Fisher House Foundation, Inc. to benefit their 40 military family support locations on 18 military bases and at 11 VA medical centers throughout the United States and overseas in Germany. 

How cute is this sign? And to think that by buying it and placing it in your yard, you are helping to support your military.  That makes it almost too good to be true.

More about the sign:

1. The 4-color sign is printed on white corrugated plastic and measures 24″ wide X 18″ high.

2. The sign comes with an easily installed 24″ long H-shaped step stake that positions the sign 8″ off the ground.

3. The sign is easily cleaned with mild soap and water and will last for years when stored properly.

4. The sign is 100% MADE IN THE USA!

I have to admit that I’m so impressed with these signs, that we ordered two for our yards!!  And I encourage you to order one for your family (and our troops) also.

Support Your Troops ~ Support Sears!

I know I needed this reminder since Sears isn’t always my first choice. Amazing when you think of how long the war has lasted and Sears hasn’t withdrawn from their commitment. I challenge all of you to buy at least one thing from Sears this holiday (and to spread the word to other family and friends).

How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up. 

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years. 

I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. I suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement it well deserves. 

Decided to check this before I posted. So I sent the following e-mail to the Sears Customer Service Department: 

I received this e-mail and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your company. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item, even if it’s cheaper at that store. 

This is their answer to my e-mail:

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting Sears.The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback.

Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time. 

Bill Thorn
Sears Customer Care

Please pass this information on to all your family and friends. Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military!!! 

Want verification?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp

A Reader Request

With my brother serving in Iraq, many of you know that supporting our military is a matter that is close to my heart. I just found out that ChristmasCardsDirect is donating 180,000 cards to Soldiers’ Angels (notice the link that has been on my right bar for a while now…I love the Soldiers’ Angels) who will deliver them to deployed soldiers to send home to family and friends.  This is such an amazing action for ChristmasCardsDirect to do.  I am so proud of them.  While we try to remember to write my brother (note to self: it’s time to do that again), I can just imagine how happy everyone would be to get a Christmas card back from him.  And knowing that ChristmasCardsDirect has helped many soldiers’ families feel this privilege, has me looking to support ChristmasCardsDirect. They tend to focus more on Corporate Holiday Cards, but if you look close there are some opportunities for us to buy from them or to have our employers use them.  And I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage you to support both ChristmasCardsDirect and Soldier’s Angels.  Companies that don’t get involved in the politics of today and worry about whether or not the war is just or not and just make our soldiers their top priority get an A+ with me, and I really hope that you will do the same. 

New Button

I am so proud to annouce the new button on the right side bar of my blog.  I’m so proud of it in fact that I put it at the top!  It’s not that it’s a great piece of art (though it is good), it’s not that I’ll benefit from it – nope, no payment, no contest entry, nothing.  So why am I so proud of it? Because I am hoping you – my readers will pay it attention!  I’m hoping you’ll notice it and then click on it.  Not only that I’m hoping that after you click on it, you will do some serious soul searching and think about the life or our soldiers.  No matter what branch of the military they are in, no matter where they are stationed, our soldiers and sailors sacrifice more than most of us could ever imagine.  They must leave their families and friends behind on so many occasions – birthdays, holidays, first steps and first words of their babies – they leave all this behind to serve us, to protect our country.  And if you click on my new button and go to Soldiers’ Angels, you will have the chance to give your thanks to the amazing men and women who are currently overseas and far away from their families.

I’ve adopted a soldier. Adopting a soldier commits you to a weekly letter and a monthly package. I had not thought much about this.  My brother is in Iraq serving in the US Army and I chat with him on yahoo messenger regularly.  I’ve set him up a blog (www.tommienotes.com) so we here from him there and comment, and then there’s email. But after hearing his excitement from receiving that first letter from one of his angels, I realized just how important those letters are.  Yes, techonology is great, but plain old regular USPS mail is something special to them.  To have their name on the mail board (or called at mail call) is something that we Americans here at home can do to make their lives better – to thank them for the many sacrifices they make over and over for us.

Go check out Soldiers’ Angels and find a way to help.  If you can’t commit to a weekly letter and monthly package, they have many other one time options for you also.

CALLING ALL AMERICANS!!!

As many of you know, my brother is in the Army (you can check out his blog at www.tommienotes.com). I’m actually from a military family I guess. It’s never been a big deal in our lives – it was just something that my grandfather and dad did. My grandpa was in the US Navy during World War II, and my dad was in the Army.  We never really encouraged my brother that he needed to be in the military, but boy are we proud that he is. While we’ve always been a patriotic family, his enlistment has brought out a new and stronger sense of patriotism in our family.

Today I found a super organization that I signed up for, and I would highly encourage all of you to give it a serious look. I know that for many Americans, times are getting tougher as the economy is taking a plunge, but I’m proud to say that I’ve adopted a soldier. This consists of sending regular letters via the postal system and a package every month. These do not have to be anything elaborate. They are simply to make sure our soldiers know they are supported back home. It doesn’t matter if you think this war is just or not – our soliders enlisted to protect our freedoms and deserve our support. I also signed up my brother and he was adopted in less than 6 hours!!  The website is called Soldiers’ Angels. Even if you do not feel comfortable taking on a longterm commitment and adopting a soldier, they have many other programs that only involve a one time commitment. You can choose to make a one time financial donation, participate in different drives such as those for blankets or first response backpacks.

I’ve talked about this great site with my family, and my mom is adopting a soldier too.  Soldiers’ Angels has a separate group called Ladies of Liberty. This is where you support and adopt our female members of our proud military with needs that are specific to women.  I think we are also going to join this program in my house and let the girls actually adopt her (even though due to age requirements, it will be my name on the adoption). 

I’ve mentioned before that I think there are many things we need to teach our students besides the listed items the state sends us. Pride in our country and military is one thing that I like to instill in my students. In addition, the importance of giving and charity are important lessons. Today’s youth have a horrible habit of only being concerned with how something will benefit them in the present. However, I’m hoping by starting habits now (even if they are rewarded), we instill these lifetime habits. For this reason, I give my students extra credit for donating blood, bringing donations for food and coat drives, or any other opportunity for charity that presents itself during the school year. I’m thinking of giving them extra credit for forming small groups and adopting a soldier. The condition will be that each piece of correspondence must be given to me, and I’ll take it to the post office (so that I can verify they are living up their obligation), and by allowing them to form small groups, it will alleviate the pressure of one family to have to put together a package each month.

With all of that said, I encourage each of you to check out Soldiers’ Angels and look deep in your heart to find some way to contribute to our soldiers. They need to know we are here thinking of them. They need to know they are appreciated.  I’ve read over and over and been told by various friends and former students of how important mail call is to the soldiers who are away from their families. I think in this day of cell phones and emails, we sometimes forget about things such as these. I know since we leave comments on my brother’s blog, I had neglected sending much via snail mail, but I will be correcting that immediately.

At a family reunion yesterday, I heard a great quote by an apparent wise elder of mine. I urge you to consider it as you continue through your day -

“Give until it feels good – not until it hurts”

Think of our military serving our country, protecting your freedom, failing to talk or see their friends and family members for months on months and then be thankful for all that you have. And if God has seen fit that you are taken care of, consider finding a way to show your support for our military. Also, if you know of any members of the military serving overseas, check the site out and consider having them sign up to be adopted.