Household6

The following message is from Neal Denton, Senior Vice President,Service to the Armed Forces:

This holiday season, we have a great opportunity to bring a touch of home to wounded warriors recovering in
military hospitals across the country. As you may know, the American public has a strong desire to send holiday
cards to soldiers staying at Walter Reed and other military medical centers. However, for security reasons, the former military program was discontinued. One of our colleagues at Walter Reed suggested, “If anyone can find a solution to this - it’s the Red Cross.”

We’re proud that this season, communities across America are invited to mail holiday greeting cards along with personal messages of support to wounded soldiers at military hospitals around the country, through a
unique partnership of the American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes Mailing Solutions.

Now we have a solution that will not only benefit soldiers at WalterReed, but also recovering soldiers at military hospitals around the nation. With the help of the Department of Defense, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Pitney Bowes, between now and December 27, members of the public will be invited to mail their holiday cards to:

We Support You During Your Recovery!
c/o American Red Cross
PO Box 419
Savage, MD 20763-0419

Red Cross volunteers will sort the cards for appropriate content and repackage them for shipping. Our steadfast partners, Pitney Bowes, will ship the cards to Red Cross stations at the military hospitals.

This project provides a great opportunity for chapters and station offices to coordinate resources and volunteers. Staff members at national headquarters will call each station office before packages are mailed to that military hospital. Those station managers will be looking for chapter volunteer support to help in accepting, storing and
delivering the cards.

A national news release will be issued shortly after announcing the program. Once you know that your field unit will be receiving holiday cards to distribute, I encourage you to contact your local media with the attached localizable news release, to take photos and write stories for your Web sites and to send us your stories at
SAFstories@usa.redcross.org.

For the past 6 years, Golden Corral has been honoring the US Military with a free “thank you” dinner and beverage at any Golden Corral restaurant on Military Appreciation Monday (first Monday after Veteran’s Day). This year, Golden Corral has designated Monday, November 12, 2007, from 5 to 9 pm, to honor any person who has ever served in the United States Military.

From the first Military Appreciation Monday in 2001 to the present, Golden Corral has donated 1.5 million free “thank you” meals and $1.9 million dollars to the Disabled American Veterans.

Between November 1 and November 12, 2007, the Disabled American Veterans Organization will accept contributions to be used in the local and state DAV chapters.

The Southern California chapter of Operation Homefront is offering assistance to military families who have lost homes and possessions - or just need a little extra support during the evacuation following the devastating firestorms. Operation Homefront has also created a Fire Relief Fund and is asking Americans for support.

To request assistance or for more information on the Fire Relief Fund, please visit http://www.operationhomefront.com/socal or contact Tricia de la Paz at 619-846-6491.

I saw this on Spouse Buzz and I just had to share. This video is done by Lizzy Palmer and she is only 15 years. old.

Make sure to pass it on!

SpouseBUZZ LIVE is headed to Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to Ft. Bragg and Pope Air Force Base on Saturday, December 1, 2007.

Mark your calendars now! Trust me , you won’t want to miss this high-energy event! I’ll be going.. are you??

More details coming soon!

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I just received a notice in my email from our Commander’s wife about a scam that is targeting military families.

Please take the time to inform yourself of the situation - that’s your protection.
===================================================
New Scam Targeting Military Spouses: The American Red Cross has learned
about a new scam targeting military families. This scam takes the form
of false information being told to military families as described below:

The caller (young-sounding, American accent) calls a military spouse and
identifies herself as a representative from the Red Cross. The caller
states that the spouse’s husband (not identified by name) was hurt while
on duty in Iraq and was med-evacuated to a hospital in Germany. The
caller states they couldn’t start treatment until paperwork was
accomplished, and that in order to start the paperwork they needed the
spouse to verify her husband’s social security number and date of birth.
In this case, the spouse was quick to catch on and she did not provide
any information to the caller.

American Red Cross representatives typically do not contact military
members/dependents directly and almost always go through a commander or
first sergeant channels. Military family members are urged not to give
out any personal information over the phone if contacted by
unknown/unverified individuals, to include confirmation that your spouse
is deployed.

It is a federal crime, punishable by up to 5 years in prison, for a
person to falsely or fraudulently pretend to be a member of, or an agent
for, the American National Red Cross for the purpose of soliciting,
collecting, or receiving money or material .In addition, American Red
Cross representatives will contact military members/dependents directly
only in response to an emergency message initiated by your family. The
Red Cross does not report any type of casualty information to family
members. The Department of Defense will contact families directly if
their military member has been injured. Should any military family
member receive such a call, they are urged to report it to their local
Family Readiness Group or Military Personnel Flight.

The American Red Cross ensures that the American people are in touch
with their family members serving in the United States military by
operating a communications network that is open 24-hours, 7 days-a-week,
365 days-a-year. Through a network of employees and volunteers at Red
Cross national that link families during emergencies, access to
emergency financial assistance, confidential counseling, community
support headquarters, local chapters, on military installations, and
deployed with troops, the Red Cross offers a broad range of services.
Among these services, the Red Cross provides communications for families
left behind, assistance to veterans, and preparedness courses for
military personnel and their families For more information visit the
American Red Cross website at http://www.redcross.org/.

1-800-FLOWERS.COM® has launched a unique Web site to say a special “thanks” to all of the military personnel, especially moms for Mother’s Day! Soldiers and military personnel around the world can view this site to read your inspiring messages of encouragement, gratitude, hope and inspiration.

Thier goal is to send 1 million messages to the troops! Will you join in their efforts? You can particpate by going HERE

Well I’m about to leave a party for the 2007 MilBlog Conference that is this weekend in Arlington, VA. It should be a blast.. when is it not when a bunch of bloggers get together? (and Military Bloggers no less) : ) I’m attending in my “official” capacity as the Military District of Washington Installation Ambassador for Military.com. (They are one of the sponsors of the conference) but I was planning on going anyway.

The panelists they have lined up are awesome - ArmyWifeToddlerMom, Andi, Neptunus Lex, Greyhawk, Some Solidiers Mom and the list goes on and on.

The webcast will be available at MilBlogs on Saturday morning for up to 1,000 concurrent users. Mrs. G will be moderating the chat room.

I’ll be posting pictures and hopefully some audio and video after I get back on Saturday night.

Here is the link to a video that a bunch of George Washington University students put together at last year’s inaugural event.

If you are attending…hope to see you there! (Come find me, I’ll be wearing the Military.com shirt)
Tammy/Houshold6



I received this email from a reader over the weekend. We are hoping to have the opportunity to interview Shauna and stream it here on the blog.

In May 2004, Shauna Fleming, a California teenager, was asked to complete a high school service project. Shauna decided to create a program that showed Americans new ways to say, “thank you” to our troops. Her program, “A Million Thanks,” collects cards and notes that are sent to the active U.S. armed forces and has turned into a year-round campaign. She collected her first one million cards by November 2004 and has collected more ever since.

Shauna has gained a number of supporters since her program’s inception. She’s even gotten sponsorship to help forward her cause. During the month of May, the “A Million Thanks” organization has partnered with Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealerships across the country in hopes to collect another one million individual “thank you” cards.

If you would like more information or want to participate, please go to http://www.amillionthanks.org/.