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Thank
you to following that have been
with Socks for Soldiers since the beginning:
McKinleyville High's SDC class has, since 2003, volunteered their time packing boxes, wrapping utensil packets for the dinner/auction, packaged the Christmas card packets, combined pens, envelopes, tablet to make the stationary packets, packaged together toothbrushes, toothpaste and dental floss, and candy packages.
The Fortuna Union Elementary faculty, students, families and friends, since 2003, have donated various items each year for the SFS boxes. Some of the items include: candy canes, candy, pens, envelopes, soup, and tissues.
BiCoastal Media, since 2003, have promoted SFS on their 3 radio stations. In 2005, KRED's DJ Rollin, spearheaded the Christmas Card for soldiers drive. Since that time they have collected and SFS has shipped over 5,000 Christmas cards to our soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
Electric
Shaver Shop
Pacific Paper
Hank and
Cheryl Ingham
Contour Construction
Cindi Borges
Lori & Florine Buchert
Sandi Little & Wayne Cooke
Gary & Nicole Cooper
John
and Arlene Burger
Umpqua
Bank
Bedliners Plus
Shaw & Peterson Insurance
Glenn and Joyce Schirmann
Myrtletown Body Shop/Storage
Toni and Paul Johnson
Hufford Sand and Gravel
BiCoastal Media
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Petersen Concrete
Karen and Mark Clark
Hole in the Wall
Neal McKenny
Humboldt County Peace Officers Association
Larry and Barbara Georgianna
American Linen (Medford, Oregon)
Costco
Pierson's
US Postal Service Employee Volunteers
Vellutini’s Baking Company
Bill and Kathy Mitchell
O&M Industries
Humboldt County Peace Officer's Assoc.
Fortuna Union Elementary School District
McKinleyville High's SDC,
Russell Porterfield Teacher
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Socks for Soldiers would like to thank the many individuals,
civic clubs, and businesses that have supported our
program through the years. We couldn't do it without
you!
The following text(s) are from SFS box recipients.
Dear Socks for Soldiers:
Hello there. I have to tell
you this; I have been overwhelmed by your organization.
Last year, I was deployed to Sinai, Egypt with B Company,
579th Engineer Battalion out of Eureka, CA. We were
attached to an Infantry Battalion performing the Multinational
Force and Observers 48 mission on the border between
Egypt and Israel. Your organization sent more than
90 individual boxes to my unit at Christmas time. At
that time, I only had about 73 Soldiers left on the
ground, so on Christmas day; I took the extra boxes
around the perimeter and handed them out to the tower
guards. I was able to ensure that all the tower and
gate guards on duty from another unit, and a few folks
at the base hospital as well, got boxes of goodies
from “Socks
for Soldiers.” Not only did you support my unit,
but those Infantrymen from 3-160IN also!
Now, this year,
I find myself in Iraq. As a National Guardsman, I guess
when I joined the Guard back in 1977, I never really
thought that I would be deploying in time of war. I
thought that I would always be fighting fires or floods
and for many years, I did just that. However, since
9/11, I have deployed four times. On this, surely to
be my last deployment, with 30 years in the military,
I find myself once again receiving care packages from
Socks for Soldiers. How do you continue to find me?
The Girl Scout cookies are a big hit with my unit again,
as they always are. This year, we are not as illustrious
a unit. No Combat Engineers this time, on the border
keeping two potential warring nations apart. This time,
my unit is the US Army Corps of Engineers and we are
rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq. We are responsible
for managing the construction of all of the water,
oil, electrical and structures in Northern Iraq. The
Corps handles this for all of Iraq, but I am specifically
in the Northern Division, stationed in Tikrit, Sadaam
Hussein’s hometown. We manage
all the construction from the borders of Syria, Turkey
and Iran in the North all the way South to Baghdad.
Our area has seven provinces, with two of them being
the most active in anti-coalition activity.
I don’t
know where you got my name from last year or this year.
However, I thank you for everything that you have done.
I have been able to share the Girl Scout cookies with
everybody here in my section (Operations) within the
USACE compound on COB Speicher. Last year, my guys
loved the knit caps, jerky and other goodies, including
those great socks.
When I got back to Humboldt County
in February 2006, I really planned to look you up and
say thank you in person, but I had already volunteered
for this mission while still in Egypt and I found my
time went so rapidly that I barely had time to prepare
for deployment and I was gone again. I was back in
the county from February 2nd to March 23rd, with some
of that time taken up in Sacramento and Camp Roberts
preparing for deployment. I am sorry that I didn’t
stop by. I definitely will when I come home this time.
Thank
you very much for all you do!
John Mohon
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It has been an honor for me to be associated
with the “Great Americans” that
are now known as the volunteer group “Socks
for Soldiers.” Three years ago I deployed in
support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During this
deployment I received a box with a return
address [From: Socks for Soldiers]. Having no
idea who it was from, I later learned that it
was from the mother of a deployed Soldier
and her friends who had packaged and shipped
several hundred boxes to my Soldiers.
Wow! What a great surprise as well as a voice
of support from home. Now three years later these
superb volunteers are still boxing and shipping
several thousand packages for our deployed troops.
These packages are filled with needed resupply
of small items, but most importantly they are filled
with a message of love and support of what our
Soldiers are doing in defense of our Great Nation. Our
Soldiers hear and appreciate that message, it
is my hope that all American Citizens hear that
message as well.
William J. Schafer
LTC,
IN June 2006 |
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