My sister was in Iraq last year, she's a combat medic and has seen some pretty ugly stuff. The one thing that upset her the most was to see some of our young guys put a gun in their mouth and pull the trigger. Why did they do that you ask? They were depressed because everyone around them was getting goodies and letters from family and friends, they weren't for what ever reason - who am I to ask. Anyway in the first seven weeks there, she saw 26 guys take their own lives. That's to many!

So when she emailed me this, I thought there had to be something I could do. I got her to send me a list of those who were not getting anything, I would set out to find them a sponsor who try and boost their morale and spirit.

The grass roots project that we now call the Goodie Box Brigade was started.

Last year in March, we started with 35 soldiers. To date I have 525 soldiers on my list, 230 have come home safe and sound, 295 currently deployed until Oct. 07. Each day that passes I get either wonderful people like yourself who want to sponsor a soldier and sometimes I get a list of soldiers. Where do I get my names now, well it has been passed around from unit to unit, the Commander's of the units contact me with the soldiers name and address.

That's all I get from them, sometimes we get lucky and the Commanders wives get in on the program and send me information about the soldiers. I pass that information on to the sponsor. I do ask that you be willing to sponsor this soldier until they come back to the States and if that is a bit much for you maybe you can share that soldier with a friend and send him/her alternating goodie boxes.

So if you are interested in sponsoring a soldier then I ask that you send me an email : sfored@aol.com and write in the subject line ' a soldier please'.

I will send you an email titled 'soldier 4 U' it will give you all the information you will need to start. I will also add your email to my list for: Goodie Box Brigade updates so I can share other sponsor - responses with you.

We have had great responses to this program, Commander's themselves have said that the difference in morale has been like night and day! We have all come together and made a difference for these soldiers, that's what it's all about.

I hope this helps explain the program, but if you have any more questions please feel free to ask.

Smile,

Deborah 'Dee' Harnish, SFOSW