Friday, November 09, 2012

Airmen stockings 2012

So it's that time of year again when I'm sitting here begging for money. For those that know already, I've kicked off the airmen stockings program again.

Last year, I was able to raise the funds through my online community to provide Christmas to 50 airmen stationed overseas and living in the dorms for the holidays. Most of these airmen would not otherwise have Christmas. We raised $7,000 in 3 weeks. This enabled me to provide stockings, gifts, etc to our airmen.

We found out after Christmas that we saved two airmen's lives last year. Both of them were suicidal. Both felt that no one really cared about them. Both of them said that they were forced to rethink that once they received the gifts. They said that having a stranger show so much kindness gave them a renewed hope for their lives.

I've been asked by the airmen, by our command, and by the Android community to do the stockings program again this year. So far, I've been able to purchase the stockings and the gifts. I'm still currently short of funds though. I still need to raise the money to provide stocking stuffers. I had originally thought that I only needed another $1,000. However, because of Hurricane Sandy, it looks like I will need to nearly double that. I can't order online to ensure that the stocking stuffers will be here on time. So I have to buy locally. Unfortunately, the exchange rate is about $1.68 to their pound.

So I'm desperately asking for help again. I need about $2,000 more to pull this off as well as we did last year. That covers the stocking stuffers, gift bags and tissue paper. It also allows me to buy cards for the airmen. Last year, each airmen received about 5-6 personalized Christmas cards and I would really like to be able to do that again.

So if you can help, please do. These airmen are in a foreign country, away from their family and friends for the holidays. Ask yourself, if it were your child, wouldn't you want someone to show that they cared?

Every dollar helps. Every time someone shares this post, it helps. So please, even if all you can donate is a couple of bucks, please do so. It all adds up to enable me to provide Christmas for these airmen. I've put in nearly $2,000 of my own money. I just don't have any more to give and I'm still short. So please please help me out again this year.

You can donate at bit.ly/airmenstockings

Thank you all so much for helping me make this happen. For caring about these airmen, and for supporting your military.