Warrior Transition Battalion: The Announcement

(Part 2 of 2 of 2-part blog)

Aaaaaaaaaaan, here's the Announcement I spoke of in Part 1...

Warrior Transition Battalion

FAMILY COMFORT PACKS EVENT

Sunday September 21, 2008

2:00 in the afternoon

Chanute Air Museum

1011 Pacesetter Drive

We are proud to announce that Toys for Troops will be working hand-in-hand with Family Services at The Warrior Transition Battalion (WTB) in Fort Gordon, GA.

When soldiers are injured on-duty, they are flown home via MedEvac. Family Services at the WTB contact the spouses and parents of these soldiers, and arrange for them to fly in to meet their loved ones.

As you can imagine, the family members are often distraught, and leave home without remembering to bring baby's favorite teddy bear, or their own toothbrushes. They face hours in waiting rooms before they get a chance to see their soldiers or to talk to physicians.

We at Toys for Troops hope to make the arrival and the time in those waiting rooms a little more comfortable for these family members. We will be filling bags/boxes with nonperishable food items, various sundries such as tissue, hand sanitizers, lip balm, etc, and toys and activities to occupy both the adults and the children.

We will send 200 packages to begin with, and then maintain that inventory for Family Services. There are currently 420 soldiers at the WTB in Fort Gordon, with 3 incoming influxes a week.

We hope that you'll join us in our endeavors.

We need:

ITEM DONATIONS to include in the boxes (see list below)

YOUR TIME on September 21. Join us in assembling bags and boxes

YOUR TIME after September 21. This will be an ongoing project. After the initial 200 boxes, we hope to work with smaller groups, on a smaller scale, to maintain inventory of these bags and boxes. If you work with or know of a youth group, scouting group, classroom, church group, or anyone else that would like to help out with a packing event on a smaller scale, please contact us.
YOUR GREAT PR SKILLS! If you don't have time or other resources, we'd appreciate it if you can help spread the word. Forward this letter to anyone that you think might be interested in helping out the cause!

Items You Can Donate:

Toiletry Items: tissues · wet wipes · hand sanitizer · toothbrushes · toothpaste · lip balm · aspirin · deodorant · fingernail clippers/file · band aids · sewing kit · razors · shaving cream · lotions (Please note that we will only accept donations of new, unopened items.)

Nonperishable Food Items: Hard candy · cereal bars · nuts · Pringles potato chips · gum · cheese or peanut butter crackers · dried fruit or raisins · individual drink mixes for water bottles · individually wrapped goldfish crackers · lifesavers · trail mix (Please note that we will not accept expired or opened food items.)

Toys/Entertainment for Children and Adults: puzzle books: word search, sudoku, etc. · coloring books · crayons · playing cards · UNO/Old Maid, etc cards · stickers · stationery and envelopes · children's DVDs

If you are interested in donating any of these items, please contact me, Lori Stewart, at ljstewart@gmail.com, or Marcee Hampton at marceeh@gmail.com. We will arrange a pickup or delivery time.

You can also drop your donations off at the Chanute Air Museum, 1011 Pacesetter Drive, Rantoul, IL.

We will try to keep an inventory of donations as they come in, and can make further suggestions to you for donation ideas.

All donations must be in by Saturday, September 20.

Don't forget that your monetary donations for tax deductible!