Personalized Gifts

As of Friday, May 29, we’ve shipped out 2,506 PFPs to our Soldiers! What a milestone!

Included in the total are the PFPs we’ve sent to Landstuhl, several Aid Station and Field Hospitals, so we can’t really say we’re that close to our original goal of shipping 3,000. I had estimated that we’d get to 3,000 by the end of August, and we’re so ahead of schedule.

This lively bunch of kids and adults gathered together this past Sunday after services to stuff 150 PFPs bound for another yet Regiment of Soldiers in Afghanistan.

The children did such a great job! From the youngest to the oldest, they each had a great time hugging and kissing the pillows they knew were being shipped to our very strong, very brave Soldiers.

Our thanks go out to my very good friend and fellow ball player, Kimberly Benton, and her efforts to coordinate this wonderful time with the Youth Group of Covenant Methodist Church in Chesapeake, VA.

Thanks to you and the whole gang, Kimmie — great job!

I wish we had a picture to share…a few weeks back, a group of young teen girls volunteered a Saturday afternoon to work together and stuff over 300 PFPs for our Troops; these hard working young ladies gave up going to the mall with their friends, or playing their latest Wii games, or talking on the phone with their BFFs – and gave their time to making a difference in the lives of our Soldiers.

Our sincere appreciation goes out to Tichina Walker, Jessica Garner, Olivia Brown, Jade Brown, Mariah Hendricks, and their Youth Director, Carole Sligh-Jackson, all of the Butterfly Club in Virginia Beach. This group is a local chapter of the National Council of Negro Women; Carole and the Club did a fantastic job!

Thank you everyone!

 We’ve embroidered our 2,000th PFP!!! 

Since denim is so very expensive, and we have an opportunity to alter our PFPs to pull double duty (both in garrison and in the field), we’ve made a little change…

Here are the PFPs we’ve made so far with ACU fabric donated by our friends at the S.C. mill. We’ve also made a slight change in the yellow ribbon we embroider; on camo fabric, we figured the ribbon should be camoflaged, too…the inset is the ribbon that’s been embroidered on the PFP to the right. We’re using thread we like to call “Army yellow”.

The ACU PFPs will begin shipping soon to Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry troops.

Including the boxes send to Landstuhl, we’re almost at the halfway point…until, that is, we start adding more Regiments to the list!

We’ve heard from a wonderful Vietnam vet in NC, along with folks in a small VA town, the Ladies and Men of St. Therese in Chesapeake, and a local VWF. Each has made a donation to continue Operation PFP, and we’re so thankful! We’ve even gotten a request from a family in TX, to send a box of PFPs to their son and his crew, Cavalry Soldiers with an Infantry Regiment, and they’re on the way as we speak.

A small group of young girls in Va. Beach offered to spend a Saturday afternoon, not at the mall or playing with their DSs, but sitting together stuffing pillows. Together, they worked on almost 300 PFPs, that we’ll send out in about a week.

I’ve heard from several Soldiers, and although we certainly don’t expect anything, it was so great to get letters! Each of these brave young Troops has made it very clear that support from home is what helps keeps them going. And my son tells me “Mom, there are pillows all over Afghanistan!”

Well, son, that’s the whole point!

When I visited Operation Comfort in Va. Beach a few weeks ago, some wonderful ladies offered to help me sew rectangles cut from the Malden Mills donation of beautiful Army-green Polartec. Fantastic! It just so happens that one of those ladies has a dad in the fabric industry. She happened to mention Operation PFP to her father, and he sent us 2 beautiful rolls of denim for more PFPs!

And if that weren’t generous enough, our benefactor has sent us 2 more rolls of denim! Oh my goodness! I had just bought 30 yards of denim from the garment district of L.A., and I knew it wouldn’t be near enough to complete pillows for the next group of Soldiers, and in comes roll after roll of denim!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

You know, I just knew I’d grow tired of seeing and embroidering yellow ribbons after a short while…I was wrong…I wear one every day, I embroider them by the dozens every day, there are yellow ribbon on the front door, front porch, the mailbox, my car, my husband’s car…I LOVE yellow ribbons!!!

Now this is a pile of pillows!

Here are over 450 little PFPs for our troops, destined for our Troops.

We’ve only been able to continue Operation PFP with the help of so many wonderful people from across my community and across my country. I am awed at the amount of support that Americans have for our troops.

God bless our Soldiers, and God bless America!

I’ve sent out emails to 50 Masonic state lodges, and every VFW in 3 states, – and haven’t received a single reply. Of course, it’s very difficult for those folks to validate Operation PFP, and I can’t fault them for not replying. With all the spam prevention programs available today, I conservatively estimate that only about 1/3 of the emails made it through the filters. About 20% were returned as invalid, and the rest? Who knows…

However…

A craft group at a local church has stepped up. I’m just thrilled about their help; they took 100 beautiful Army green pieces of cut and embroidered fabric and have volunteered to sew them, buy the polyfiber and stuff them, even pick up the cost for shipping the boxes. Our other volunteer took 50. So that only leaves 600…

One of our families and our country has lost a son and an American Hero.

Please join us in honoring the service of PFC Adam Hardt, just 19 years old, who died on Sunday, March 22, 2009, in Wardak Province, Afghanistan.

Adam was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

May his family find solace and peace.

Just when you think it looks hopeless…more citizens volunteer not only money, but time as well.

In response to the article in the Virginian Pilot’s Clipper, a member of the Virginia Beach Department of Social Services contacted me; she supervises a program that provides service to adults with Intellectual Disabilities. She and her group have volunteered to help get the next Company’s boxes ready to go.

And just when we were down to our last $20, my neighbor handed me 2 checks made out Operation PFP; one from her family, and one from her parents. Both will buy enough fiberfil to complete over 180 pillows, and pay the shipping costs for all 6 boxes to the next Company!