No we haven’t adopted a child, a cat or a puppy. We have adopted a soldier! A few weeks ago I was reading a blog and the author was talking about how she and her husband were collecting items to send to a platoon they had adopted. The platoon was stationed at a hospital in Iraq that served injured soldiers. They did not have enough blankets and apparently underwear was in huge demand. It floored me that such basic items were in short supply. I wish I could recall which blog it was but I don’t have my notes with me. I was a military brat for a number of years and my step-father served during Desert Storm. I remember my step-father telling me how much the troops appreciated letters, cards and care packages. I may not agree with U.S. foreign policy, but I always believe in supporting our troops. I thought about that blog entry for a week. I was upset that soldiers were in need of basic items and I felt that there had to be something my husband and I could do. I went online and applied to adopt a soldier. We have agreed to send a letter or card each week and to once a month create a small care package to send to the soldier. Today I completed a short interview via the telephone and I received the name and contact information for our soldier this afternoon. If you would be interested in adopting a soldier or platoon, please check out adoptaplatoon.org!
Our adoption was approved!
April 7th, 2008 · 7 Comments
Tags: Interesting
7 responses so far ↓
1 Leisa Watkins // Apr 8, 2008 at 2:34 am
Wow, what a wonderful idea. My brother has served a couple tours of duty and it always breaks my heart to hear of soldiers who never receive any packages or anything.
I once saw a documentary that showed how few letters and such the soldiers received that were laying in hospitals.
You inspired me. Sounds like a great project to do with the kids too.
~ Leisa
2 Lisa365 // Apr 8, 2008 at 9:15 am
Wow, that’s amazing! congrats!
3 Grandmother Wren // Apr 8, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Disturbing and inspiring both. I would expect our troops would appreciate letters, I would not expect that they would be in need of things like underwear and blankets. Very disturbing.
You did a good deed with this post - thank you for speaking up and spreading the word.
4 Ann Clemmons // Apr 8, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Congratulations! What a great idea and a great post~
You Rock~
Ann
5 fragileheart // Apr 8, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Hm… I’m very conflicted about this. I would love to help but it’s like when you adopt a child in need through one of those agencies.. how do you know the money is actually getting to the troops?
I know the letters are a different thing, they don’t have anything to gain from getting people to write them and then not give them the letters - but what about the money that’s supposedly for blankets and underwear? How do I know they’re not being used just to buy more guns, ammo and bombs? Or did I completely miss the point and you don’t send money?
6 Beekers // Apr 8, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Fragile:
You don’t send money. We will send letters to the soldier. This allows us to get to know the soldier and to determine if they need anything or if there is an item they are missing from home. We will put together a small box (care package) of goodies for that soldier. Things like books, candy, sun block, etc. The organization I went through also allows people, organizations, churches, etc. to adopt whole platoons. Those groups raise money or collect money from its members and then buys the items requested (i.e. blankets & underwear). They then ship the items to the platoon.
7 c gonzales // Apr 9, 2008 at 7:32 am
I will surely check out the website. Didn’t realize how bad it gets there while we’re here safe and sound.
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