I'm here to ask for your help.
On Veteran's Day my colleagues and I at Blogging for Michigan kicked off a project named Blogging for Michigan Troop Care. We're taking up a collection so we can send care packages to troops currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The effort continues through tomorrow night.
Can you make a donation? If you have an extra $5, $10, or $20 in your wallet tonight, please help us buy more goods for troops. We have a PayPal account set up to accept your donation. (Link updated now. Thanks to Christine.) Our goal is $5000. As of now, we have raised about $3400.
Not convinced yet? Then let me give you a few more details to help you open your wallet and your heart.
Our story begins with inspiration right here from teh orange. Both kath25 and Ninepatch have blogged extensively asking our dKos community to send items to our troops. That's where we got the idea.
We're using their suggestion to get the names of soldiers and lists of items they need from anysoldier.com. And, I'd be remiss not to point out that djtyg, one of our front pagers, is a proud soldier who has served in Iraq.
We went out and enlisted some local help too. We're partnering with:
- employees at the General Motors Truck and Bus plant in Flint;
- UAW Local 598;
- Lansing area talk show host Walt Song of AM 1320 who has interviewed our bloggers several times over the last week to discuss the program; and
- Tri-City Local which covers community news for the mid-Michigan communities of Saginaw, Bay City and Midland has also been collecting goods and donations.
We pledge that every penny collected will be used to either buy goods, or pay the cost of shipping them.
Early next week we'll be shopping for the items our soldiers have specifically requested. Our first stop will be Costco. Other than Costco, our purchases will be at local retailers so the money can stay in the Michigan economy.
The UAW Local 598 leadership has graciously offered to allow us to assemble the packages at the union hall. Many members of 598 have also volunteered to help us with the packing and delivering boxes to the post office. Our plan is to have everything shipped by mid-to-late week so the packages can arrive before Christmas.
There are 14 Michigan units listed in anysoldier.com. We're sending a package to all 14. If we can reach our goal, we'll have $350 to spend on each. Considering how many soldiers are in a unit, that's not really very much per person for our brave men and women serving in harms way.
We know that not everyone can afford to send an entire package themselves. Give what you can and we'll put the small donations together and use our purchasing power.
So how about it fellow Kossacks? Will you give our soldiers a little bit of holiday cheer? Please open your hearts and your wallets for this worthy cause.
If you can't, thank you for reading. You can still stop by and leave a note of cheer for our troops.
Update: The number of MI units appearing in anysoldier.com dropped this afternoon to 12 after I penned this diary. But we're still short of our goal - $350 per unit. Please help us.