Take a Soldier to the Movies

  I didn't get any knitting done today but I did have a good time helping pack popcorn boxes full of goodies for soldiers in Iraq.  It's an awesome program called, "Take A Soldier To The Movies".  There's a dvd, popcorn (microwave), candy, drink mix and letter to a soldier from people who donated dvds all packed up in a real movie popcorn box.  I think the letter is the best part.  Jeremy will be a popular guy in his unit when the three huge boxes make their way to him in Mosul.  It just about brought tears to my eyes to see how many people donated items for this project.  If you want to help out, click here.

The woman who oversees the program, Pam Lindenmeyer, called to make sure Jeremy's unit gets taken care of before she passes on the baton to another volunteer.  Over 4,000 boxes have been sent downrange in the last year by Pam and her volunteers.  It was so amazing to me that I wanted to do more.  I offered to take over the operation for Pam.  It actually works out perfectly.  Dan has a HUGE conference room (think football field) at the office.  The conference room is right over the Post Office and Mail Room.  So when supplies come in, we can just take them right up the stairs.  We'll have the huge conference table to pack up the popcorn boxes and then we just carry the packages right back downstairs to the Post Office to ship downrange.  Ser-en-dipity, my friends, Ser-en-dipity.

The son of the man that started the program is in Pam's husband's unit.  They had a family tradition of going to the movies every Thanksgiving.  When his son was in Iraq and that wasn't possible, he "took" his son's whole unit to the movies by sending them DVDs and popcorn.  How awesome is that?!

For Valentine's Day, my Valentine came home with roses, a card and he'd printed out and framed my very first blog post from October.  Cute, huh?

Daniel's Factoid:  April 15th, 1912 :  The day the "unsinkable" British luxury ship Titanic collided with a massive iceberg.  Less than three hours later, the 883-foot-long ship sank to the floor of the ocean.  More than 1,500 people died.  (mom's note:  the Titanic is Daniel's speciality)

Comments

[Kathleen]

I got choked up reading about the beginnings of that program. Great idea! And good for you taking it over. Wow. Will look into it definately..

[Nilda]

What a great idea for a project. That's just so cool.

[Mary Beth]

Weird - I was just helping my son with a project on Abe Lincoln - did you know he died on April 15? Great work on the movie thing!

[yvette]

That is a great programme, good job. Now, how are those cables coming along?

[Cate Fitt]

What a great project! Almost every request on AnySoldier.com is for DVDs. They get sick of watching the same ones over and over. Good for you, Jean, taking this project over. Just don't quit knitting. Cate

[Nathania]

What a cool and wonderful way to help out our men and women over there! Good on you, Jean. And btw, my daughter Kaelyn is completely nuts over the Titanic and its history. It's been the focus of research for well over a year now (and she's only 9).