Ordinary Americans connecting with troops. Connecting with men and women in Iraq and becoming invested in their being successful.After sending some cans to her 28-year-old son, Shriver enlisted the help of two priests and posted notices in her church and its newsletter. From there, the effort took off, with money and Silly String flowing in. Parishioners have been dropping cans into donation baskets.
This is from a story over at Military.com on creative uses for Silly String and one mother's efforts to get Silly String over to the troops. I have read about it over at The Castle when Laurie of Soldier's Angels New York posted about it. Anything that helps the troops is great. But what I want to point out is the line "Parishioners have been dropping cans into donation baskets." These are people who may not even know Mrs. Shriver or her son. They may not even know anyone in the military. This is in a very small way the equivalent of WWII metal scrap drives. It involves those who are on the sidelines. It's small, but it's a very good thing.
You are right. I'm glad more people are getting involved, but I hope they can do so in more ways than just silly string. My thought is, not all our troops are out on patrol who will need this, but all of them need cold weather gear in the winter and hot weather gear in the summer. And a myriad of other items to make things easier, such as sand scarves. If the silly string thing gets them thinking about helping the troops, great, but I hope they expand that to helping in other ways as well, not just with the item dujour presently hyped by the media.
ReplyDelete