Hi everyone!
I just wanted to throw up a quick post to let you know Operation Warrior Watch is still alive and kickin’! After two back-to-back events in November and December, the 2016 cold/flu bug descended upon our household for all of January, and I’m just getting back around to being able to form a sentence.
BUT! Busy, we have been! Back in November we worked with our local VFW 630 to throw a pork chop dinner fundraiser. The turnout was fantastic! Our collections were high and the overhead low, due to all of the donations and hard work by our community and our Veteran Babies at the VFW. We made close to $2000 to put toward the Christmas event!
In December we had our annual Christmas Gifts to Soldiers Event. The turnout was one of the best we’ve had and the donations were incredible. This was the first year that I did not have to go shopping after the event to fill out the last of the boxes we had to ship.
In addition, I was incredibly touched this year to realize that the majority of the names on our mailing list were submitted to us by soldiers that have received boxes from us in the past. When they all want to put their buddies on our mailing list, I figure we’re doing something right.
And now: Valentine’s boxes! We received a few names at Christmas for soldiers who wouldn’t quite arrive to their bases in time to receive their boxes, so we held them back, and have just covered them for Valentine’s day. We shipped to deployed soldiers a week ago.
We also had a few donations that were marine-specific, so I put a call out on Facebook for a few addresses of active-duty marines to send the good loot to.
I still have Valentines letters from children left over, and will pop them into envelopes today, and get them on their way tomorrow, to bright up a day here and there. The letters are from Shiloh Elementary school, and they simply ROCK!
So, here we are, February. Spring is around the corner, and we’ll continue to keep in touch with our soldiers, touch base with veterans, and interact with their families.
I wish I had the time, right now, to elaborate on all of the amazing folks that have stepped up in the last couple of months. I will circle back and highlight some of our volunteers in future posts, I promise!
As always, if you want to play along with us, have donations, ideas, or a mailing address, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!
