And it just keeps getting better.

I am so amazed by the generosity of people, especially when they don't even know those they might be serving.  One of my brothers works at Key Bank. He asked his boss for permission to solicit Marine donations from his fellow coworkers. His boss referred him to someone at the corporate office who is in charge of collecting donations to send packages to Key Bank employees family members who are serving our country. She said last year they collected 2 tons of supplies to send out. She said they are just getting ready to start their donations for this year. She said she would make sure my Marine brother received packages, I believe she said 4, and a care package when he returned home. She also said they make sure to send packages to those who are not receiving any support while they are out there. WOW! I think this is awesome. Thanks Key Bank employees.

My sister's relief society, the group that donated some of the stuff we sent out in our first round of packages, sent letters to every Marine in my brother's platoon. Fifty letters went to Afghanistan this week. Below are photos of her ward putting together the supplies for the packages.

We will be sending our "Make a Marine Your Valentine" package around Feb 18th. We hope to include

• Travel size toothpaste, shampoo or body wash (thanks to all my coworkers who donated their St George hotel goodies!)
• Envelopes and pens
• Sunscreen
• Razors
• Candy or gum
• Visine
• Crystal Light or Gatorade to go packets
• Lots of letters

Thanks again to everyone for all your support! Let's keep those packages going out!

Why am I blogging?

My little brother and his platoon deployed for Afghanistan two weeks ago. Before he left he said the only thing that is going to get us through this is lots of prayers, letters and packages. He asked us to send packages to his platoon of fifty marines. As he is over fighting for the freedoms we probably take for granted on a regular basis, my family decide we would take on the challenge to send a package to fifty marines each month they are deployed.
I am creating this blog to keep everyone up to date on how my brother is, how the package collections and mailings are going, and hopefully to recruit donations of supplies to send to the troops!

We sent our first package, or I should say packages- there were 7 large flat rate shipping boxes, off last Saturday. Yep- seven boxes full of socks, crystal light to go, power bars, Kleenex, Chapstick, sunscreen, gum, candy, hand sanitizer, and pens are all on there way to Afghanistan. From the sounds of it, these will be well received as this platoon had a "rough" day today!

I want to say a big THANK YOU to all who helped donate to the cause and assure our first packages went out. Goodies were donated by my coworkers and my sister's relief society including a last minute envelope of the needed amount of cash to mail ALL those boxes. That was truly a blessing in disguise.

This month we are theme our campaign- "Make a Marine Your Valentine" So if anyone wants to donate the following items or Valentine's cards these will go out to our Marines during the month of February.

• Travel size toothpaste, shampoo or body wash
• Envelopes and paper
• sunscreen
• candy or gum
• crystal light or gatorade to go packets
• razors
• Visine

I have also included the links to donate to care packages sent out by marineparents.com or to purchase a calling card and send it.