mr. blackandwhite

Help somebody this weekend.

Ok it's Friday and I know a lot of us, myself included, are getting ready for weekend time, but before you crack open your frosty beverage, I'd like to ask you to think about some people who are going to be spending their weekend trying to help others. If you can, please help support them and these great causes!

This weekend, Courtney will be participating in the Boston AIDS Walk 2008.

As of this writing, she only needs about $150.00 to reach her fund raising goal of $1,000.00.

Please consider heading over to her AIDS Walk fund-raising page and giving what you can. It won't take much to push her over the top! You can read the story about why she walks, here.

I also received an e-mail today from Soldiers Angels. They are gearing up to send thousands of cooling scarves to our U.S. Service Men and Women who are serving in Iraq.

Here is a little bit of info about these scarfs:

"The "magic" in these COOLING SCARVES comes from hundreds of tiny, hidden polymer crystals.

When they are soaked just 15 minutes in cold water, they swell up with that water and stay ice cold.

They are designed to stay cold for 48 hours. But in the searing desert heat of Iraq, they typically cool a soldier for about 15 hours before needing to be "recharged" in water.

When a soldier wraps a COOLING SCARF around the back of their neck, it has an incredible cooling effect... making the overwhelming heat bearable again."

Soldiers Angels' goal is to make sure all of our Service Men and Women have at least one cooling scarf.

If you can, please try and help them to reach this goal! Go here to donate!

Thanks for reading this. Have a great weekend!

Help support our troops at The Army Wife.com

Hey everybody. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and while many of us are spending time with our families, enjoying a turkey dinner and watching football, there are men and women who are away from their families and are putting their asses on the line for all of us over in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world..

You can do something to directly help our soldiers.

Jess at The Army Wife.com is accepting donations through PayPal that will be used to buy baby-wipes, personal hygiene and other helpful items that will be packaged and sent directly to her husband's squad that is currently serving in Iraq.

Regardless of your feelings about the war, remember these guys are there for us. Go to The Army Wife.com to learn how you can help.

Spread the word!

Thanks for reading.

Happy Friday! Don't forget about Valour IT!

Hey what's up innerwebinstangs. (I just made that word up.)

Hope you're having a great Friday! I just wanted to post a reminder here not to forget about VALOUR-IT!

This is a great program that will directly help a U.S. Soldier who has been injured while defending OUR country, and YOUR freedom. So take a second and click on the link there to the right at the top of the page and send some money to help support Valour-IT. It does not matter how much. Five, ten, twenty bucks... whatever you can spare.

Instead of getting a pizza tonight, put the money towards a voice-controlled computer that will go an American Soldier who can't use their hands right now, that will allow them to communicate with their family, friends and compatriots still in the field.

That's right. I'm guilting you. Do it.

(And Thank you!)

Help somebody! Support Valour IT!

If you look over there on the right, you'll see a button for Valour IT.

I hope you can take a moment out of your day to help support this great program and maybe donate a few dollars to help our wounded U.S. Soldiers.

Thank you!

Here is some more helpful information about the program and the fundraiser from Blackfive:

Want to be part of something big?

Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss (Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss' father), provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse.

WHAT: Friendly fundraising competition for Valour-IT.
WHEN: October 30th through Veterans Day, November 10th .
WHERE: Based in the blogosphere, spreading everywhere else.
WHY: Because giving wounded warriors with hand and arm injuries access to a computer supports their healing and puts them back in touch with the world.
HOW: Blogger teams will be divided along military branches, with civilians "up for grabs.

It's a tax-deductible donation and eligible for matching funds from companies who do that sort of thing (see: http://soldiersangels.org/valour/irsinfo.html for proof for the cautious).

The snail mail address for those who'd rather donate that way:

Soldiers' Angels
1150 N Loop 1604 W, Suite 108-493
San Antonio, TX 78248

Let's be a part of something big.

Do you know a soldier? Information to pass on...

A reader sent this to me recently and I wanted to post about it to try and help to get the word out about this program that was passed by the Massachusetts legislature.

It is called, The Welcome Home Bonus and it is a payment of $1000.00 to soldiers... "who have at least 3 years active duty service since 9/11/01, who live or have lived in the Commonwealth [of MA] for 6 months prior to that date and who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan since then."

If you know of any soldiers who might be eligible for this bonus, please pass this information on to them and point them to the details of the program which can be found here:

http://www.mass.gov/treasury/veteransbonus/welcomehomebonus.htm

Thanks to "Dunndee" for passing this info on to me. I am happy to do my small part to try and spread the word about this. I would also like to add a special thanks to Dunndee for his service to our country.

Thank you.

There's still time to donate to Valour IT!

It's good to see that Valour IT is going strong. There's still a couple days left, so if you have not donated, you still have time!

Any amount you can give will go a long way to helping a person that has sacrificed more than many of us can ever know. If you can, click on the donate button in the nav-bar on the right of the page. Thanks!

Help a Soldier! Support Valour IT

Sometimes we need a reminder about stuff that is really important. I saw this on Blackfive's site.

Please do what you can to help soldiers who have put themselves on the line for all of us by sending a donation to Valour IT!

Valour IT is a program run by Soldier's Angels that, "...provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations..."

This is a tax deductable program and every bit counts!