Support Our Troops – Part I

Support Our Troops – Part I

If you say, "I support our troops," that’s great because tens of thousands of young men and women are on the front lines of freedom and they deserve our support. But what is it that you are doing in support of our troops? It’s nice to verbally lend support of our men and women in uniform, but there are many ways to provide real, concrete support for our young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan (as well as in Korea and other lonely and dangerous places around the globe).

One of those ways is to give financial support to one or more of the many great troop support organizations, often led by mothers or wives of deployed men and women. In fact, in virtually every war, groups spring up spontaneously to perform this worthwhile service. For the current conflict one of these groups is Soldiers’ Angels (www.soldiersangels.org), a truly remarkable organization led by Patti Patton Bader. (Patti is a grand niece of General George Patton.) For the record, Soldiers’ Angels is a client of Fund Raising Strategies (www.fundraisingstrategies.com); I serve as President of this company.

Patti is truly an amazing individual. When her oldest son was shipped off to Iraq, Patti began sending him a box of goodies each day. When she heard back from Brandon that the other guys in his company could also use some support and encouragement, the packages started going out in even greater quantity. But that was just the beginning.

Although Patti has an incurable disease, she didn’t let that stop her from expanding her support from her son’s unit to soldiers throughout the Iraq theater. That’s when Soldiers’ Angels was born.

Today more than 145,000 active (and I mean really active) "Angels" volunteer to help support our troops. They embroider blankets for injured troops, they sit up all night holding the hand of a wounded soldier, they ship out tons and tons of support items – everything from toiletries to X-Boxes. 

Soldiers’ Angels has given away more than 2,200 lap-tops to disabled and wounded veterans of this conflict so that they can communicate and develop skills to sustain themselves after the war is over. When needed, they send over Kevlar blankets for protection. There is literally nothing Soldiers’ Angels won’t do to help, support and encourage our troops.

Millions of dollars in goods and services are provided to America’s active duty warriors and to those who have returned home with injuries. It is impossible to list all the support given by Soldiers’ Angels to our men and women in uniform, and it’s all done out of love.

So if you say that you support our troops and want to put those words into action, I strongly recommend Soldiers’ Angels as a worthy recipient of your financial support. Maybe you even want to volunteer as an "Angel" who writes and supports men and women who serve in dangerous, lonely spots around our globe. After all, these young folks are putting their lives on the line, isn’t a little support in order? You can even donate frequent flyer mileage. The government limits travel support to the spouse or mother of soldiers, but Solders’ Angels makes sure that more family members can also travel to support their injured love one. By the way, Patti’s youngest son, Bretton, is now serving in Fallujah, Iraq. So check out the Soldiers’ Angels web site (www.soldiersangels.org) today, and please keep Bretton and all our men and women in uniform in your daily prayers.