June 21, 2010

All the bake-a-thons are over.  All the packing is done.  14 large boxes at over 600 pounds were shipped off to our soldiers! What an awesome feeling that was, holding up the line at the Post Office - mailing everything off.  No, seriously, we didn't hold any lines up. The postal workers at the Dixieland branch in Lakeland were awesome!  They saw us stacking up our boxes before they opened for business, and started processing us through  before opening hours.  We were so blessed and thankful. We saw a lot of their patrons coming and leaving doing their business while we process all of the packages. The amount of thanks extended to us, when people found out where the packages were going, was overwhelming.

Thanks to everyone that helped accomplish our goal for 2010.  Read more: Shipped on Time...Lessons Learned | Mission Accomplished!

April 22, 2010

Frito Lay donated over 10 cases of Doritos to add to our package.  Please make sure you find a way to give back to this company for their generous donation.

The faculty at Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL collected 90 boxes of girl scout cookies to send in our care package. Thanks to Nancy Guzman-Alvaro for organizing this for us.

It's not too late for you to help!  Contact us today and let us know how YOU can help to show support to the 2-116th FAR Battalion.

March 29, 2010

We are off to a great start! We have collected enough donations so far, to purchase the polymer crystals to make the neck coolers for the troops (remember, it gets up to 114 degrees in the summertime). Currently, we are looking for 49 yards of cotten material (minimum of 45" wide) AND volunteers to help sew and make the neck coolers.  If you are interested in donating material, or your time to help make these coolers, please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Had a great planning meeting on what we will be doing this year! We have made a list of items we want to include in our package to the troops this year.  Even though our Girl Scout Cookie drive, didn't go as originally planned, we were still able to collect just under 100 boxes to send to this unit!! The decision was made to send those in the "general box". The students at Life Student Ministries of Harvest AG, along with Mike and I, will bake a minimum of 4,200 cookies to give each 351 soldiers at least 1 dozen home baked cookies each! Thank goodness we will have the use of Harvest's kitchen to do all the baking!  We are currently looking for donations of either the ingredients to bake the cookies, or gift cards to Publix and/or Winn Dixie to purchase the baking ingredients.

I was so excited when the mailman came to our house today. We got the shipment in of the international Phone Cards from Cell Phone for Soldiers. Please make sure you visit their website, and help them help others! Each soldier will get a calling card, so they can keep in touch with their loved ones here in the states!

They're off to serve our country. What a humbling experience it was to be at the sending off ceremony this morning. There is something about being in a room with our brave men and women that have volunteered to protect and serve – that I just can't explain. It was a sense of honor, love and compassion. It reminded me of the day in 2006 that I watched my son – as he was deploying. The flood of emotions ran through me that day. It surprised me that I felt the same way about this group of soldiers getting ready to leave.

We pray for the safety of all those deploying, and pray for a sense peace over the families left at home.

View Photos of the deployment

We have adopted the 2-116th Field Artillery Regiment, comprised of 350 soldiers from Lakland, Bartow, Winterhaven, Dade City and surrounding areas.(plus we will be supporting Sgt. Guzman). This is our largest group yet! 

This year, we made the decision to shift our plans in order to provide this Brigade of soldiers a "Christmas in July".

Our goal will be to provide each 351 soldiers the same package as we have in the past.

We are currently in the planning stages of this outreach, and will announce details as we get them firmed up. The projected ship date for our package will be for the soldiers to have their "Christmas in July" on July 4th, Independence Day!

Thank to everyone for their continued support!