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Woke up this morning with a thought.
A while back in Israel, there was what we shall call, for simplicity's sake, a "bad military situation." Troops stuck in limbo, taking hits, getting a lot of bad publicity, losing morale, etc.
HAS Advantage, a credit card company that distinguishes itself by supporting Israeli charities, set up a "Send A Hug" program. It's over now, but the page is still there. They sent a "hug" consisting of a piece of chocolate and a brief personal message of support to every single soldier on the front lines. In fact, in under 10 days, they sent over 100,000 of them.
HAS did it for free. That is, you gave them your email address and a message to send, and they sent the "hug" for you, free of charge. They got publicity and email addresses (which they used to send ocassional offers and updates, which you could easily unsubscribe from).
It occurs to me that it's a neat idea. And something we could do for our troops.
Now, I'm one of those people who thinks that we never belonged in Iraq in the first place, that the whole thing is a huge mess, and that that best way to support the troops is to help bring them home.
But I recognize that they're there now, without the support they need, in many cases held over for extra tours of duty they never signed up for, fighting on our behalf, following orders whether they agree with them or not, and basically risking their lives in service to our country.
I'm not a credit card company. I'm just this guy. But Hershey's Kisses are pretty cheap. You can buy them by the bagful for a couple of bucks. Or you could buy something like this box of over 2000 "Thank You" Kisses for a little more. That would come out to about a dime a Kiss. Though it's quite possible that Hershey's, for the publicity and the bulk order (about 100 boxes), would give a price break.
I don't know. It would take some organizing. And a lot of donations. There'd be stuff to gather, shipping costs to handle, distributions... But, with some help and attention, I think it might just be doable.
I'm going to drop an email to the good people at AnySoldier.com and TreatAnySoldier.comto see what they have to say, but they're pretty busy. Not sure if or when I'll hear back.
Right now, this is just a budding thought. Any ideas, suggestions, comments, etc. you may have would be appreciated.
A while back in Israel, there was what we shall call, for simplicity's sake, a "bad military situation." Troops stuck in limbo, taking hits, getting a lot of bad publicity, losing morale, etc.
HAS Advantage, a credit card company that distinguishes itself by supporting Israeli charities, set up a "Send A Hug" program. It's over now, but the page is still there. They sent a "hug" consisting of a piece of chocolate and a brief personal message of support to every single soldier on the front lines. In fact, in under 10 days, they sent over 100,000 of them.
HAS did it for free. That is, you gave them your email address and a message to send, and they sent the "hug" for you, free of charge. They got publicity and email addresses (which they used to send ocassional offers and updates, which you could easily unsubscribe from).
It occurs to me that it's a neat idea. And something we could do for our troops.
Now, I'm one of those people who thinks that we never belonged in Iraq in the first place, that the whole thing is a huge mess, and that that best way to support the troops is to help bring them home.
But I recognize that they're there now, without the support they need, in many cases held over for extra tours of duty they never signed up for, fighting on our behalf, following orders whether they agree with them or not, and basically risking their lives in service to our country.
I'm not a credit card company. I'm just this guy. But Hershey's Kisses are pretty cheap. You can buy them by the bagful for a couple of bucks. Or you could buy something like this box of over 2000 "Thank You" Kisses for a little more. That would come out to about a dime a Kiss. Though it's quite possible that Hershey's, for the publicity and the bulk order (about 100 boxes), would give a price break.
I don't know. It would take some organizing. And a lot of donations. There'd be stuff to gather, shipping costs to handle, distributions... But, with some help and attention, I think it might just be doable.
I'm going to drop an email to the good people at AnySoldier.com and TreatAnySoldier.comto see what they have to say, but they're pretty busy. Not sure if or when I'll hear back.
Right now, this is just a budding thought. Any ideas, suggestions, comments, etc. you may have would be appreciated.