Monday, November 13, 2006
Valour-IT: Thank You!
As of today, Nov. 13 2006, here are the totals from the Valour-IT fundraising drive:
Marines: $51,228 (Way to go, guys!!)
Navy: $47,212 (Congratulations, Smash!)
Army: $46,395 (well, at least we passed the $45K goal)
Air Force: $39,823
Total: $184,658 (with a goal of $180,000 by Veteran's Day)
We made it! Congratulations to the folks at Valour-IT and Soldier's Angels, who will be able to buy a lot of voice-controlled laptops for wounded soldiers with that money.
If any of my readers contributed to those totals, you have my heartfelt thanks -- and the thanks of wounded warriors whose names you may never know, and who will never know yours. But they will know that Americans, whom they swore to defend, care about them and want to help them... and I'm sure that that will mean the world to them.
And what the hey, my team did meet its goal... and managed to beat out the airedales. That's worth something too. (No offense to any Air Force readers, if I have any.)
Labels: contributions, military matters
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Project Valour IT
A number of people have called this to my attention, and I thought it was time to put my money where my mouth is.
So I've made a contribution to Valour-IT, a project that purchases and distributes voice-activated laptops to wounded servicemen. (This is one of several charitable projects run by Soldier's Angels, who work tirelessly in their mission: "may no soldier go unloved".)
I can only imagine how incredibly frustrating it must be, for a wounded warrior to not have use of his or her hands -- to not be able to send an e-mail, or catch up on Internet news. And I can only imagine how rewarding it must be to be in that situation and receive a laptop, fully equipped for voice control, that solves some of these problems.
Let me stress that, when it comes to supporting the troops, this is as non-political as it gets. You don't need to be a supporter of the War on Terror to want to help a wounded soldier. And, in the end, it doesn't matter if a member of the U.S. military was injured by an Iraqi IED, or an Afghan terror raid, or even a training accident; they volunteered to protect us, right or wrong, and they deserve our support.
You can see the status of donations, or make a donation of your own, at the top of my sidebar on the left. Donations can be made in the name of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines -- although the division is just for purposes of friendly competition, in order to raise more money.
Perhaps I should have made my donation in the name of the U.S. Navy; as of now, they have the fewest blogs promoting them and the lowest amount of money so far. I'd also have the benefit of working with my blogfather Smash.
But what can I say? I'm an old Army guy.
Labels: contributions, military matters
