Soldier Guest Blogger: SSG Kim

Today's post and accompanying photos are provided by our Kosovo correspondent, SSG Kim. Her message and photos took my breath away. I hope they do yours, also.

Hello to all my dear friends,

I apologize for not writing sooner, however the amount of work to be done is endless here. As soon as we can assist one person, or problem, ten more arise, and I don’t have the heart or ability to turn away from any of them. There is no doubt in my mind that God has placed me here, at this time, to do his work. I am grateful for that every night when I lay my head down to sleep.

I wish you could all see this place, and understand the suffering that continues here. However, these people have a tenacity, and a love for life that somehow maintains them. Many times I have heard how some child wants to grow up to be an American Soldier. Not a British, or French or anything else…an American Soldier. Because we volunteer to come here to help them and leave our families behind. It’s the greatest way they can think of to honor not only the American Soldier’s, but the American People. When I tell them how I receive boxes full of things for their children from people they don’t know in the States, they are speechless, and tears follow.

You are their hero. I only wish I had the means to convey this to all of you. I am considering staying for another tour. These people and their struggle for freedom, the thing we so easily take for granted, has touched a part of my heart that no one has every touched in this way before. I will keep you all posted. There are days when I just can’t take anymore, and I sit down and have a long cry. God always yanks me up by my ammo belt and reminds me why I’m here.

My Soldiers are thankfully doing well. The younger ones are starting to rotate out on leave for well deserved breaks. There have been children born, parents buried, wives that have left, and so on since we’ve been here. They always seem to pull through. They are and will always be my true heroes. I wish you could see the tears in the eyes of the Soldier who came to show me a picture of his daughter who was born while he was waiting for a plane in the airport to come home. "Hero" is just not a good enough word. They all amaze me, every day.

I miss so many things here though. The smell of my dog’s after they have been swimming. The feel of the grass on my feet. So many things that I will never take for granted again.

I wish all of you the best and please keep us in your prayers. I will try to write soon. Lori has my address if anyone would like to write.

Godspeed.

SSG Kim

This is how I spent my day off. There is a beanie in each bag. At least half of the stuff in these bags has been sent to me from the United States.

My crew:

Helping a farmer vaccinate his sheep. This one got the best of me!!!

Notice I'm telling the sheep which way to go by pointing. The vet is cracking up...




My favorite school in Ferizaj/Uresovic. All these children are severly handicapped, but they KNOW WHERE I HIDE THE BEANIES IN MY PANTS POCKETS!!!

Yet another stray dog who is sleeping on the sand bags that surround
the site where Milochovic gave the infamous speech of 1989.

Caught crying during a MEDCAP, medical treatment for the most needy, somewhere in Kosovo. There are times such as this, when I just can't play the hard core Soldier any longer. Next to me is my wonderful Serbian interpreter, Davor.

Handing out school supplies and beanies in Novo Brdo, a VERY poor area of KOSOVO:

Riots in Mitrovice:


With my Serbian interpreter on the infamous bridge in Mitrovica:

Give it up for SSG Kim. If you want her e-mail address, contact me at ljstewart@gmail.com.

Helping Families of Injured Soldiers

Warrior Transition Battalion

FAMILY COMFORT PACKS EVENT

Sunday September 21, 2008

2:00 in the afternoon

Chanute Air Museum

1011 Pacesetter Drive

We are proud to announce that Toys for Troops will be working hand-in-hand with Family Services at The Warrior Transition Battalion (WTB) in Fort Gordon, GA.

When soldiers are injured on-duty, they are flown home via MedEvac. Family Services at the WTB contact the spouses and parents of these soldiers, and arrange for them to fly in to meet their loved ones.

As you can imagine, the family members are often distraught, and leave home without remembering to bring baby's favorite teddy bear, or their own toothbrushes. They face hours in waiting rooms before they get a chance to see their soldiers or to talk to physicians.

We at Toys for Troops hope to make the arrival and the time in those waiting rooms a little more comfortable for these family members. We will be filling bags/boxes with nonperishable food items, various sundries such as tissue, hand sanitizers, lip balm, etc, and toys and activities to occupy both the adults and the children.

We will send 200 packages to begin with, and then maintain that inventory for Family Services. There are currently 420 soldiers at the WTB in Fort Gordon, with 3 incoming influxes a week.

We hope that you'll join us in our endeavors.

We need:

ITEM DONATIONS to include in the boxes (see list below)

YOUR TIME on September 21. Join us in assembling bags and boxes

YOUR TIME after September 21. This will be an ongoing project. After the initial 200 boxes, we hope to work with smaller groups, on a smaller scale, to maintain inventory of these bags and boxes. If you work with or know of a youth group, scouting group, classroom, church group, or anyone else that would like to help out with a packing event on a smaller scale, please contact us.

YOUR GREAT PR SKILLS! If you don't have time or other resources, we'd appreciate it if you can help spread the word. Forward this letter to anyone that you think might be interested in helping out the cause!

Items You Can Donate:

Toiletry Items: tissues · wet wipes · hand sanitizer · toothbrushes · toothpaste · lip balm · aspirin · deodorant · fingernail clippers/file · band aids · sewing kit · razors · shaving cream · lotions (Please note that we will only accept donations of new, unopened items.)

Nonperishable Food Items: Hard candy · cereal bars · nuts · Pringles potato chips · gum · cheese or peanut butter crackers · dried fruit or raisins · individual drink mixes for water bottles · individually wrapped goldfish crackers · lifesavers · trail mix (Please note that we will not accept expired or opened food items.)

Toys/Entertainment for Children and Adults: puzzle books: word search, sudoku, etc. · coloring books · crayons · playing cards · UNO/Old Maid, etc cards · stickers · stationery and envelopes · children's DVDs

If you are interested in donating any of these items, please contact me, Lori Stewart, at ljstewart@gmail.com, or Marcee Hampton at marceeh@gmail.com. We will arrange a pickup or delivery time.

You can also drop your donations off at the Chanute Air Museum, 1011 Pacesetter Drive, Rantoul, IL.

We will try to keep an inventory of donations as they come in, and can make further suggestions to you for donation ideas.

All donations must be in by Saturday, September 20.

Don't forget that your monetary donations for tax deductible!

SSG Kim

I haven't updated you lately, but I just want you to know that Toys for Troops is still alive and kicking over here. We have a lot going on in the wings, are expanding our services, and you'll be hearing more about it in the days to come.

In the meantime, I want to share an email I got on July 3rd, from SSG Kim, serving in Kosovo. She wrote:

We have already been deployed for 4 months and spirits are getting low. I would like to request some beanies to hand out to my younger Soldiers to help them get through this. I also leave the wire every day and would love to hand some out in the poverty ridden villages. God Bless you and your organization for all you do for those of us so far from home and and the ones we love.

The day before the holiday weekend! I couldn't wait until Monday! I left work early and sent 250 beanies on their way, with promises of more. And we continued to correspond. Her next email read:

I am very lucky as my job allows me to go out into the orphanages, displaced persons camps, and the villages of the war torn. It's quite heartbreaking to see. I met an older couple the other day that watched three of their sons butchered in front of them in 97. Through my translator I asked why they didn't leave. She kept telling me that she knew the Americans would come. She has 35 people, all family members and mostly children, living in three rooms.... I see these things every day. I can guarantee that I can find a home for as many [toys] as you can get to me.

And, a few days later, she sent photos:

















Friends, these are OUR American soldiers. Stuff is really happening out there. It's more than the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and CNN and Time magazine. These are real soldiers, helping real people. I get letters from them. Their mothers, fathers, stepmothers, wives, sisters, brothers.

Thankfully, I get emails from you. Every. Single. Day. Every single day, someone from this United States e-mails me, and asks me for an address, or how to send beanies, or what can go in a care package. I wrote to Florida and Minnesota this morning, and I talked on the phone with an Army administrator this afternoon.

We are very, very busy. And there's stuff to do right now, and there will be stuff to do later. We're be here, if you want to play in our sandbox.

In the meantime, show SSG Kim a little love, will you? I'll save you the cost of a stamp, and direct her to the comments here; she can forward them to her guys, who are our guys, too.

If ever a record should be broken this is it.

Who's on deck?

Pinch Me

Part I: Precursor

I haven't had time to tell you about a cousin that I haven't seen since I was 13 years old: Richard. He joined the army when he was 17 years old, in 1976. In 1978, while stationed in Germany, he met and married his wife Ann, and stayed in Germany after retiring from Army life. He has continued to serve in the U.S. Army Reserves for the last 17 years.

Richard has been called up. New Year's Eve was his "going away party" in Germany, afterwards leaving his wife and 2 kids, to report to Fort Benning, Georgia for further training. Fort Benning: where Brian would be, if he weren't in Iraq.

Part II: Noah's Birthday

Today was the day! NOAH'S BIRTHDAY!

Noah, the young man that turned 9, and asked for soccer balls for the troops, instead of birthday presents. Who is this kid, and who are his parents? I have marveled while I waited to find out.

You know from a previous post, that, since I wasn't to bring a gift, that I still wanted to do something for him, and so worked on arranging a phone call from a certain soldier that I know that is my son.

In the interim, I decided, wouldn't it be cool to drag a real, live soldier to this party?! I didn't really know where to turn, or who to ask, so tossed up my hands on that one. Drat.

Part III: A Very Interesting E-Mail Rolls In

E-Mail, Friday, from Michael, Richard's Brother [paraphrasing]: Hey! Richard will be in town tonight! Any chance we can get together this weekend?!

Me: Hmmm. Will Richard be in uniform?

Part IV: The Party

Noah's Birthday party had an "OOooey Goooey" theme; a package deal offered by the Park District, at the Phillips Recreational Center. It was gooey! The boys painted with spaghetti, and shaving cream. White t-shirts mysteriously turned to green in an hour's time.





And I watched and laughed, and waited with anticipation, when at 2:45, a phone call, with the prefix 1-999- came through.

Brian! He did it! He got through! Noah's mother "stopped the presses" and I surprised him, "You have a phone call from Iraq."

(The Birthday Boy, with his once-white t-shirt)

It was pin-drop time. His friends stood silently, with his parents smiling in the background, and we listened to his shy, short answers to Brian's telling him Happy Birthday, and asking him what he was doing ("making slime").


Did I say I wouldn't get squooshy?!! I lied. I teared up and shook as I took photos of Noah and Brian talking. We really pulled this off! Oh, for a hug and a spin with my kid! He did it!

After Noah's mother, Joy, talked to Brian, the phone was handed back to me, where I stepped into the hallway and thanked him. My boy, he is back on the 20-hour shifts. The telephones are 1/2-mile away from his tent. He set an alarm to make this call, today. He continues to make me proud, from the other side of the world.

And at 3:00 in the afternoon, my cousins Michael and Richard informed me they were at the door. And Richard, who I've not seen in 32 years, waltzed in, in uniform, sat down at the kiddie table, and asked "what's your name?"


He then stood up and told those kids his story. He laughed with them. "I'm not rich! I'm Richard!"

My head is spinning. It is 8 minutes since I greeted and hugged them in the parking lot, and a crazy "Hey, great to see you! We hardly know you anymore, but you're a celebrity today, you know, a big giant hero; hope you don't mind saying a few words to people that neither you or I have ever met before. Wow, thanks for coming. Batter's up!"

Next, Clint & Co. rolled up in a firetruck, having been out on errands, and got to say "HI!" and shake some hands, before heading back to the station. Snow piled high and limited parking kept him from inviting boys to a little "Firetruck Monkey Bars," but his quick presence was a nice bonus for all of us.

It was my turn next. Still queasy at "public speaking," I chose to sit and speak to these boys. I thanked Noah, and told them of all of the changes they had made with their contribution. Noah told me, honestly "I just want to hang out and have fun with my friends!"

I'm not even sure if I can get this across: This is not put-upon, this kid. He is so unconcerned with birthday gifts that he can hardly wrap his head around any reason that I'd thank him.

After chatting with the boys, I gave them each a packet with 4 photos that Brian took, and an "Army" bandana that I picked up at Champaign Surplus. I'm surprised now that I just expected them to schlep home with their bandanas, when what they really wanted:

Duh. To wear them.

We had every boy wrapped in a bandana, and on their way to the next Oooooey Gooooey craft, when we took our leave.

Here's the gift table, full of soccer balls:


Here's a token shot of me and the cousins: Michael, Me, Richard:


And at the end of this day, I sit, torn between speechlessness and gushing-gushing-gushing.

Noah. His parents. His friends. Brian. Michael. Richard. Clint. And my friend Diane, in the wings, cheering me on and convincing me to do "something special" with the packets I gave the boys:

Every single person I encountered on this day went quietly about making monumental gestures for people that they don't know.

If I am dreaming, please don't wake me up.




For more photos of the day, click here.

Cheerio Necklace and an Up & Coming Hero

I've been blessed, lately, with more frequent phone calls from Brian. He's been sending more photos lately, also, and a few movies, which I'll post later, with accompanying Mommy-thoughts. For today, though, here's one I got today, of Brian and a beautiful necklace he made. I don't know if it's for me, or if he ate it, but I'll keep checking the mail, just in case. I love handmade jewelry.

Always nice to see a picture of my smiling ki...wait...is it just the light, or does it look like he has a black eye? His right eye? Does that look like a shiner to you? Well. Hmph. I'm going to have to check into that. Maybe Moore punched him after reading my blog and finding out who planted the rubber spider.

I have to tell you about a special event that I'm attending next Saturday, and hoping Brian will attend with me, best he can. I could wait and tell you after the fact, but this is so good that I want you to look forward to it with me.

There is a young man named Noah, that is turning 9 next Saturday. I haven't met him yet, but I've been invited to his birthday party.

Noah is giving up birthday presents at his party. He has instead asked each friend and family member to bring a soccer ball. Noah, for his 9th birthday, is sending soccer balls to soldiers on the Toys for Troops mailing list, so that they can hand them out to the children in Iraq.

And I'm going to show up with posters and photos, and try not to get all squooshy when I tell him and his friends what a difference they're making.

And don't tell him because we're not sure we can make this happen, but Noah might get a special phone call from a soldier in Iraq, in the middle of the party. Brian is checking his schedule, and going to do all he can to make a near-midnight (his time) phone call next Saturday night, that will fall in the middle of Noah's (afternoon here) party.

I figure a thank you from a soldier is a pretty good way to sneak in a gift to a kid that's giving his up.

Wish us luck making this happen; I am so excited. With his mother's permission, I'll try to post a photo of the day.

Can't you just hardly wait?!

An Announcement

Instead of telling each and every one of you separately, I'm just going to let you read the letter I got last week. Here it is:

Ms. Stewart,

Our office has recently learned about your efforts to support our troops overseas. Toys for Troops is well recognized across the state and has grown beanie baby after beanie baby.

To recognize your efforts in supporting our troops, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn would like to recognize you as a Homefront Hero. The Homefront Hero Award goes to everyday people (civilians) who are making the extra effort to help out our soldiers, military families and Veterans.

To celebrate, we will be holding a press conference on Tuesday, December 11th at the State Capitol in Springfield. The press conference will be at 1pm and last approximately an hour.

Get out! I'm going to the state capitol on Tuesday, isn't that wild? A press conference! I'm already trying to compose myself, and Hollywood's Fightin Mad Mary has sent me a ton of TV tips, as she promised she would if I ever had to face a camera again.

The letter stated that I'll be asked to say a few words about the organization. It's difficult to summarize it, when I feel that so many deserve so much credit.

So many point out to me, when I say that, "YOU did, this Lori. This is YOUR doing."

I know, I know I've done my part. I have e-mailed and blogged and written letters and shaken hands and hugged friends and strangers, and sacrificed a bit of space in my garage.

But others. Jeff and Michelle have driven all over the state helping out. Jeff picks up my graphics and runs to have them made into signs and posters. He made our t-shirts, and has represented us at public affairs that I have been unable to attend, and applied for charity grants to help us pay for shipping. It is their friends that stepped up, and voluntarily maintain our website, and print our banners and posters.

Clint gives up at least a couple evenings a week, if not all of them, on a regular basis, to this organization. He helps me fold cards and stuff envelopes. He's offered up the use of his covered trailer, picks up tables and coffee pots and food on his days off, and on more than one occasion The Boy has shoo'd me out of the kitchen so that I can get back to printing labels and letters, while he whips out dinner to die for.

Local Marine Mom and friend Chris Lyke rallies for us constantly, collecting soldier's names for our mailing list, and making homemade cookies for "our sons. Friends! Melissa's trunk is consistently refilled with beanies as coworkers leave them at her desk. John Otto! Our attorney! My God, where would we be without him, how tired he must be of my e-mails asking questions such as "Is the EIN the same thing as our tax number?" Another friend for a quarter-century, Steve printed 2-part receipts and delivered them to my house IN FREEZING RAIN last week, so that I'd have them for the packing event.

Man, I'm telling you...I'm just standing over here with a big old stick, pointing out what needs to be done, compared to the rest of you.

I did not do this alone. I never could have, not in a million years.

In 7 months, the joint efforts of parents, siblings, and spouses of soldiers, and real, live actual soldiers have done this. Teachers and attorneys and restauranteurs have done this. Television reporters and newspaper reporters and deejays have done this, side by side with veterans, girl scouts, boy scouts, police officer and firefighters. Friends and family and seamstresses and bakers and businessmen have stepped up.

Bloggers! Lord, let's not forget the bloggers! You've mailed beanies, and boxes and money and you've put the word out there for me. As Sammy Sosa said, "Blogging been very very good to me." (It was him that said that, right? I get my politicians all mixed up.)

Lordy, I get in a tizzy just thinking about it! I can't say all of THIS on Tuesday, we'll only have an hour, you know, and there are 9 other recipients that have to take a turn, and I suppose the Lt. Gov. will want to say a few words.

I'll keep working on that. And I'll wear blue, and no flashy jewelry, and I won't look into the camera..

....and if any of you can give me a tip on how to speak in public about something that is so, so dear to you, without turning into a blubbering...well, MOM, then I'd sure like to hear them.

Christmas Event: Gifts to Soldiers

We packed. DVDs & CDs. T-shirts, socks and gloves. Footballs and Flashlights.

Stockings. Candy Canes. Cards & letters.

Community Encouragement. Hugs. Love.

Lifelong friends from high school came. Family came. New friends came. I laughed a lot. I teared up, with a few.

In 2.5 hours, we had gifts and necessities for every soldier on our list, and enough money to send our boxes. We had cookies and cocoa, and then we cleaned up, packed up, and were on our way.

Click HERE to see the photos from today's event.

Tomorrow: Post Office, Round 2! Yee-haw!

Thanks, thanks, forever thanks!

P. S. There's still time to participate! If you're interested in sending a gift to a soldier, hit me up, we'll make it happen!