Who is ready for Christmas?
I will be collecting 250-300 Christmas stockings (any size), Christmas cards and candy canes for the veterans at the Waco VA hospital. The stockings can be hand made or store bought, same with the Christmas cards. If you are able to donate any of these items please email me and I will send you my address: vactltx06@gmail.com
Please have these items to me by December 1st so that I can hand deliver them to the VA hospital.
If you have any other items you would like to donate to the VA hospital (playing cards, phone cards, personal hygiene items, etc) feel free to let me know as well.
Thank you
Melissa MacLaurin
Contact Angel
vactltx06@gmail.com
Contact Angel for the VA Hospital in Waco
Soldiers Angels Foundation
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Letter for Lyrics
The Letters for Lyrics campaign is on-going. We've now got this great widget so you can write your letter directly from your computer!
Read what others have written, watch the great video of Zac Brown Band in Iraq, share this widget with others. You can even select to send your free CD (that you get for writing a letter) to a service member. Our goal is one million letters. As of this writing, we have just over 328,000. Spread the word to help us reach that goal!
Read what others have written, watch the great video of Zac Brown Band in Iraq, share this widget with others. You can even select to send your free CD (that you get for writing a letter) to a service member. Our goal is one million letters. As of this writing, we have just over 328,000. Spread the word to help us reach that goal!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Tripp Marxx's "When You Come Home"
Independent hip hop artist Tripp Marxx has a new song out just today dedicated to our troops. He will be donating 30% of the proceeds of the sale of this song on iTunes and other digital retailers to Soldiers' Angels.
Watch the video and consider spending that $.99 on the download to help support Tripp Marxx's effort to support Soldiers' Angels. Thank you, Tripp, for choosing Soldiers' Angels!
Watch the video and consider spending that $.99 on the download to help support Tripp Marxx's effort to support Soldiers' Angels. Thank you, Tripp, for choosing Soldiers' Angels!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Special visitors enjoyed at Bonham VA CLC
.JPG)
Mr. L.A. Hudson and “Professor Snodgrass” (dummy) visited with the residents at the Bonham VA Community Living Center today. He spent about 2 hours with them and brought out many smiles.
Sherman boy spends summer raising donations to help U.S. military
Jackson Rainbow, a Sherman home-schooler, recently showed his support of U.S. troops by collecting and donating more than 2,000 items to the Soldiers' Angels program. With Jackson are Bill and Martha Neyman of Sherman, volunteers with the Soldiers' Angels program, who picked up the hefty donation.
While many youngsters spent the summer break riding bikes, swimming, gaming and other favorite pastimes, 11-year-old Jackson Rainbow of Sherman got busy. His efforts were evident earlier this month when the industrious youngster donated more than 2,000 items to the Soldiers' Angels program to be sent to military troops serving in Afghanistan.
"It is very unusual to meet someone, no older than Jackson, that sets a goal to help others who are in service to this great nation," said Martha Neyman, a Soldiers' Angels volunteer from Sherman. "The items Jackson collected will be placed in boxes going to individuals, as well as chaplain's programs to insure our troops have the personal hygiene items and snacks they need, as well as cards and letters from people at home, sharing their thanks to these men and women."
The industrious home-schooler has always supported the military, says his mother, Cynthia Rainbow.
"Jackson has been described as an old soul, having a tender caring heart, a protector, big voice, and sweet spirit," says Rainbow. "I'm not sure where and when he grew to love our men and women who serve our country. It almost seems as if it's just been a part of his young life since he could talk. Each night, Jackson prays for his cousin, who serves in the army as a physician's assistant. He prays for his safety, his army buddies' safety, and his wife and children. He asks God to keep his hands around his cousin and to bring him home safely. Well, each time, his cousin has come home safely. Jackson's prayers have been answered."
She continues, "When he (Jackson's cousin) returns home from his tour, he always comes to visit his grandmother who lives with us. At that time, Jackson gets to see his cousin and visits with him. Like most little boys, there's a fascination with soldiers, tanks, guns, etc... You can only imagine the questions Jackson asks his cousin. I think during these conversations, Jackson learns a small part about what war is not, and a little reality is shared ... the reality of where there is war, the comforts of home are not. He's learned that the men and women who serve their country miss their families, but they are serving for the love of their family, country and freedom. Jackson seems to understand about their sacrifice."
Jackson wanted to do something to help the soldiers, and thought he could possibly volunteer at the veterans hospital in Bonham, but volunteers must be 15 years old. The same day he got the news that he was too young, he also learned of a U.S. Marine Corps building project in Afghanistan. A list of things they needed from home was sent and Jackson took up the cause with gusto. He asked his church family, his fellow 4-Hers at Four Corners 4-H Club in Fannin County, neighbors, and friends to help fill the list. He wrote a cover letter explaining his goals, attached it to the list, and passed it throughout the community, even broadcasting the project over a radio station. As word of Jackson's efforts spread, the project grew. Not only did local groups and individuals lend their support, but three schools in Plano and Arlington.
Jackson says he plans to do the same project next summer. He also is working on a sock and candy drive for Soldiers' Angels "Holiday for Heroes" project.
TAPS Mentors Support Families of Fallen
By Elaine Wilson
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2010 ? The day Scott Warner saw Marines standing at his front door, his world came to a crashing halt.
The servicemembers told Warner that his son, Marine Pvt. Heath Warner, had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq?s Anbar province.
Warner and his family, including his two younger sons, tried to come to terms with the tremendous loss while also attempting to navigate a huge and vastly unfamiliar military system.
?We were thrust into this military world that we didn?t know how to interact with and didn?t know how to connect with,? Warner said. ?At the same time, we had to deal with the death of our son.?
Warner eventually found the support he needed through the military and the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping families of the military fallen. And nearly four years later, he?s now dedicated himself to ensuring other families don?t experience that same sense of overwhelming confusion after such a profound loss.
Warner is a volunteer with the TAPS Peer Mentor Program, a peer-to-peer program for people who have lost military loved ones. The program pairs survivors who are further along in their journey of recovery with those who are experiencing a more recent loss.
?It?s someone saying, ?My story is quieter now, and I want to help others along with the process,?? Debbie Dey, the mentor program manager, said.
Mentors offer everything from a shoulder to cry on to connections to helping resources, Dey explained. Mentors aren?t counselors or advisors, she added -- they?re new friends who will commit to being there for others.
Mentors ideally are paired with survivors within 48 hours of their request for a mentor, Dey said, and the goal is to match people based on relationship first, followed by circumstances of death and branch of service. So, a mother of a soldier who was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan will be paired, if possible, with another mother whose soldier son died in similar circumstances, she explained.
The similarities help to create common bonds, Dey said. ?Survivors are so grateful to have an ear from someone who understands their loss,? she added.
In turn, the mentors often gain as much from the relationship as the person being mentored. ?It?s very therapeutic on both sides,? Dey said. ?And it can offer a stepping stone for both relationships. Their circumstances may be different, their relationship with a loved one may be different, but they?re offering each other hope for the future.?
Meagan Staats said she has found healing by serving as a peer mentor. But just four years earlier, she never imagined being able to undertake the task. On Dec. 16, 2006, two soldiers came to her home to notify her of her husband?s death. Her husband, Army Staff Sgt. David Staats, had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. The devastation was immediate and life-altering, she said.
?My stomach still hurts when I see soldiers in Class A?s,? she said, referring to the dress uniforms the notification team members were wearing.
Staats sat with the soldiers for several hours, showing them pictures and sharing stories about her husband. But her thoughts were on her daughter, whom she had dropped off at a birthday party a few hours earlier, and how she was going to tell the 7-year-old that her father was now dead.
When her daughter arrived home, Staats said, she didn?t sugarcoat the news; she told her daughter that her father had died in Iraq. Her daughter went into her room and screamed into a pillow. ?I felt so hopeless,? she said. ?It was traumatic.?
Staats avoided counseling, and she and her daughter struggled with the weight of the loss. Having heard about TAPS, Staats and her daughter went to their first TAPS regional meeting eight months out from their loss, marking ?the start of our healing,? she said.
Two years later, Staats was asked to become a mentor. After extensive online and in-person training, she was assigned to be a mentor for a woman in Colorado Springs, Colo.
?I was scared to take that on, because I felt responsible and didn?t know if I could help her,? she said. ?I weighed the decision for a few days.?
Staats decided to make the call and ?just listened and listened,? she said. ?Hopefully, that was helpful for her.?
She since has mentored nearly a dozen other widows through TAPS. She?s now mentoring two women, one of whom she has never met. But they exchange text messages and e-mails frequently, she said.
Staats has benefited so much from her volunteer work she refers to it as self-serving. ?We really help each other on our journey,? she said. ?It?s healing to me to feel like I?m serving a purpose.?
Warner describes being a mentor as ?paying it forward.?
?The only people that can understand and really help other people are the people who have walked in the steps that they?re walking,? he said.
But like Staats, Warner has had his moments of self-doubt. He recently was called on to mentor a father from California whose son had died while home on leave from a deployment. The servicemember died in his father?s arms. The father took a leave of absence from work, but due to a procedural glitch, he was terminated from his job. The family dipped into most of their financial assets and was heading toward foreclosure.
?It was the worst-case scenario in trying to provide some type of encouragement,? Warner said. ?Not only did they lose their son and their life turned upside-down, their whole life was coming unglued. It was really hard.?
Warner talked the family into attending a TAPS national conference, where he and other TAPS members offered as much emotional support as they could. This was a tough situation, Warner noted, but still rewarding to him to help.
?Being a peer mentor has been a very positive thing,? he said. ?Having relationships with people who don?t judge, who offer encouragement, those are positive things. There?s no wrong way to grieve. It?s the journey you?re on. You have to walk it.?
Mentor relationships can become lasting ones, Dey noted. She?s heard of families staying in close contact or taking vacations together. But whether they stay in touch for a month or for years, ?the bond is very genuine,? she said. ?It?s a beautiful and unique relationship.?
Staats said she?s just grateful for the opportunity to help others, and herself along the way.
?The loss is profound, but what we?ve gained is immeasurable,? she said. ?I?ve never known friendships like this.?
Related Sites:
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2010 ? The day Scott Warner saw Marines standing at his front door, his world came to a crashing halt.
The servicemembers told Warner that his son, Marine Pvt. Heath Warner, had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq?s Anbar province.
Warner and his family, including his two younger sons, tried to come to terms with the tremendous loss while also attempting to navigate a huge and vastly unfamiliar military system.
?We were thrust into this military world that we didn?t know how to interact with and didn?t know how to connect with,? Warner said. ?At the same time, we had to deal with the death of our son.?
Warner eventually found the support he needed through the military and the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping families of the military fallen. And nearly four years later, he?s now dedicated himself to ensuring other families don?t experience that same sense of overwhelming confusion after such a profound loss.
Warner is a volunteer with the TAPS Peer Mentor Program, a peer-to-peer program for people who have lost military loved ones. The program pairs survivors who are further along in their journey of recovery with those who are experiencing a more recent loss.
?It?s someone saying, ?My story is quieter now, and I want to help others along with the process,?? Debbie Dey, the mentor program manager, said.
Mentors offer everything from a shoulder to cry on to connections to helping resources, Dey explained. Mentors aren?t counselors or advisors, she added -- they?re new friends who will commit to being there for others.
Mentors ideally are paired with survivors within 48 hours of their request for a mentor, Dey said, and the goal is to match people based on relationship first, followed by circumstances of death and branch of service. So, a mother of a soldier who was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan will be paired, if possible, with another mother whose soldier son died in similar circumstances, she explained.
The similarities help to create common bonds, Dey said. ?Survivors are so grateful to have an ear from someone who understands their loss,? she added.
In turn, the mentors often gain as much from the relationship as the person being mentored. ?It?s very therapeutic on both sides,? Dey said. ?And it can offer a stepping stone for both relationships. Their circumstances may be different, their relationship with a loved one may be different, but they?re offering each other hope for the future.?
Meagan Staats said she has found healing by serving as a peer mentor. But just four years earlier, she never imagined being able to undertake the task. On Dec. 16, 2006, two soldiers came to her home to notify her of her husband?s death. Her husband, Army Staff Sgt. David Staats, had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. The devastation was immediate and life-altering, she said.
?My stomach still hurts when I see soldiers in Class A?s,? she said, referring to the dress uniforms the notification team members were wearing.
Staats sat with the soldiers for several hours, showing them pictures and sharing stories about her husband. But her thoughts were on her daughter, whom she had dropped off at a birthday party a few hours earlier, and how she was going to tell the 7-year-old that her father was now dead.
When her daughter arrived home, Staats said, she didn?t sugarcoat the news; she told her daughter that her father had died in Iraq. Her daughter went into her room and screamed into a pillow. ?I felt so hopeless,? she said. ?It was traumatic.?
Staats avoided counseling, and she and her daughter struggled with the weight of the loss. Having heard about TAPS, Staats and her daughter went to their first TAPS regional meeting eight months out from their loss, marking ?the start of our healing,? she said.
Two years later, Staats was asked to become a mentor. After extensive online and in-person training, she was assigned to be a mentor for a woman in Colorado Springs, Colo.
?I was scared to take that on, because I felt responsible and didn?t know if I could help her,? she said. ?I weighed the decision for a few days.?
Staats decided to make the call and ?just listened and listened,? she said. ?Hopefully, that was helpful for her.?
She since has mentored nearly a dozen other widows through TAPS. She?s now mentoring two women, one of whom she has never met. But they exchange text messages and e-mails frequently, she said.
Staats has benefited so much from her volunteer work she refers to it as self-serving. ?We really help each other on our journey,? she said. ?It?s healing to me to feel like I?m serving a purpose.?
Warner describes being a mentor as ?paying it forward.?
?The only people that can understand and really help other people are the people who have walked in the steps that they?re walking,? he said.
But like Staats, Warner has had his moments of self-doubt. He recently was called on to mentor a father from California whose son had died while home on leave from a deployment. The servicemember died in his father?s arms. The father took a leave of absence from work, but due to a procedural glitch, he was terminated from his job. The family dipped into most of their financial assets and was heading toward foreclosure.
?It was the worst-case scenario in trying to provide some type of encouragement,? Warner said. ?Not only did they lose their son and their life turned upside-down, their whole life was coming unglued. It was really hard.?
Warner talked the family into attending a TAPS national conference, where he and other TAPS members offered as much emotional support as they could. This was a tough situation, Warner noted, but still rewarding to him to help.
?Being a peer mentor has been a very positive thing,? he said. ?Having relationships with people who don?t judge, who offer encouragement, those are positive things. There?s no wrong way to grieve. It?s the journey you?re on. You have to walk it.?
Mentor relationships can become lasting ones, Dey noted. She?s heard of families staying in close contact or taking vacations together. But whether they stay in touch for a month or for years, ?the bond is very genuine,? she said. ?It?s a beautiful and unique relationship.?
Staats said she?s just grateful for the opportunity to help others, and herself along the way.
?The loss is profound, but what we?ve gained is immeasurable,? she said. ?I?ve never known friendships like this.?
Related Sites:
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors
Monday, August 2, 2010
Capt. Jason Holbrook of Burnet
From KVUE News:
I don't care for them referring to him as a "victim" of Operation Enduring Freedom, but other than that, this is a good piece about a local hero.
I don't care for them referring to him as a "victim" of Operation Enduring Freedom, but other than that, this is a good piece about a local hero.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Just Listen to Support the Troops!
Jesse Dayton is one of the artists involved with Soldiers' Angels partner Voices of a Grateful Nation. This organization's CD, which includes Jesse's song, I'm Comin' Home helps fund activities that use music to help returning and wounded soldiers re-acclimate and recover.
Now, Jesse needs a little help from you in order to help Soldiers' Angels and Voices of a Grateful Nation. All you have to do is watch his video for I'm Comin' Home.
If CMT.com records at least 1000 hits a day, Jesse's video and his PSA for Soldiers' Angels and Voices of a Grateful Nation will be put into regular rotation of music videos on CMT. Getting Jesse's PSA on CMT will be a wonderful way to help spread the word about what Soldiers' Angels does.
Soldiers' Angels and Voices of a Grateful Nation working together helps the troops:
You can also learn more about Jesse Dayton and watch both videos on CMT's site.
One thing I noticed while watching the music video: one particular unit patch I saw on many of the soldiers in the video was very familiar to me: an arrowhead with a capitol "T". It's the unit patch for the 36th ID out of Camp Mabry here in Austin. Soldiers' Angels will be participating in another Yellow Ribbon event for the 36th Infantry Division on August 14th as they prepare for deployment to Iraq.
Also, if you'd like to support Jesse Dayton more directly, check out his tour dates. He's performing at the well-known Broken Spoke in Austin on August 5th, 12th, 26th and 29th and in Houston at The Continental Club on September 4th.
I’m Comin’ Home tells the story of going to Iraq and coming home safely to live happily ever after. It has received rave reviews from soldiers and military families, and now has the attention of CMT.com (Country Music Television). The video is playing on the station’s website and is linked to a PSA about the efforts of Soldiers’ Angels and Voices of a Grateful Nation to use music to support the troops.
Now, Jesse needs a little help from you in order to help Soldiers' Angels and Voices of a Grateful Nation. All you have to do is watch his video for I'm Comin' Home.
If CMT.com records at least 1000 hits a day, Jesse's video and his PSA for Soldiers' Angels and Voices of a Grateful Nation will be put into regular rotation of music videos on CMT. Getting Jesse's PSA on CMT will be a wonderful way to help spread the word about what Soldiers' Angels does.
Soldiers' Angels and Voices of a Grateful Nation working together helps the troops:
One result of the partnership between Voices of a Grateful Nation and Soldiers’ Angels is the new music lesson/therapy program at the warehouse, part of Operation Soft Landing. Along with Charlie Gallagher and musicologist and guitar teacher Craig Hillis, Soldiers’ Angels co-founder Jeff Bader has been developing and stocking a room to provide music lessons and performance opportunities for wounded veterans and those in transition to civilian life. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) issues such as hand/eye coordination or motor problems, and short-term memory challenges can all be improved through playing an instrument and listening to music.
The call went out for instruments in the last month, but so much more is needed and the hope is to expand Operation Soft Landing to locations around the country. All revenue Jesse receives from “I’m Coming Home” will go to support this project. Simply watching these great videos is a powerful way to help!
You can also learn more about Jesse Dayton and watch both videos on CMT's site.
One thing I noticed while watching the music video: one particular unit patch I saw on many of the soldiers in the video was very familiar to me: an arrowhead with a capitol "T". It's the unit patch for the 36th ID out of Camp Mabry here in Austin. Soldiers' Angels will be participating in another Yellow Ribbon event for the 36th Infantry Division on August 14th as they prepare for deployment to Iraq.
Also, if you'd like to support Jesse Dayton more directly, check out his tour dates. He's performing at the well-known Broken Spoke in Austin on August 5th, 12th, 26th and 29th and in Houston at The Continental Club on September 4th.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)