My DD and I were discussing this and she expressed a great interest in doing this. Can someone post some legit sites where I can sign up for something like this..maybe tell me a bit about what any of you do for your soldiers that you adopt? Send them things? Write letters? Thanks for your help.

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Eileen

**Some people are like Slinky's, not really good for anything, but you can't help laugh when you see one tumble down the stairs**

I did a quick post on the TOT board. I have adopted a soldier thru SOLDIERSANGELS.COM
THey are a registered charitable organization started by the granddaughter of General Patton.
I am responsible for sending at least a weekly letter (I tend to do three) and 2 care packages a month. There is no dollar limit on the packages they can be a deck of cards on a short week to a full flat rate priority package on pay weeks. My first package I just sent what I hoped he could use and from there when he told me what he needed I did my best to help him. I was lucky my solider was based at a medical unit and did not need much/many special items, so I got to do fun packages. Some Angels get soldiers that receive little in the way of necessities and tend to send other things. Basically what you send is up to YOU and what you can afford. Trust me I live in the Dollar Tree and buy him many things from there. Thru this organization I am also active in supporting VA hospitals and the Fisher House in Cincinnati (an equilivant of McDona;d houses for military).

If you do decide to adopt a soldier it is a very rewarding experience. I do want to caution you could adopt a soldier that remains silent, you may never hear from him/her but you must keep sending your part of the bargin. Remember they are under a tremendous amount of stress, loneliness and terror. All soldiers who are adopted sign up for this it is not just dropped on them without their knowledge. You could be the only link to home that the soldier has.

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Laura
Please visit my blog
http://mylifeinlaurasworld.blogspot.com/

Hopefully, you'll get some good advice. I'm interested as well.

Thanks for posting this!

I know some 'internet angels' who send cards and care packages to people through this site -


AnySoldier.com

Cuthie - you changed your post!

I know a little bit about adopting troops and sending care packages as I've been quite active in doing so since 2002. There are a couple of different ways to go about supporting troops with correspondence and care packages, which I will roughly describe as Adoption and Request Filling. Laura described the type of commitment that typifies Adoption well; you are assigned a troop who may or may not be receiving from other supporters as well. You commit to sending letters weekly and a care package of some sort either once or twice a month. You commit to doing so for the deployment duration whether or not you hear back from the troop since athey can be busy, not have access to outgoing mail or e-mail, and/or just plain uncomfortable with writing to a stranger. Nonetheless, they will appreciate getting snail mail from YOU. Always provide an e-mail contact as most troops seem to prefer it for their correspondence, although there are some that still write the good old-fashioned snail mail letter.

Two reputable troop adoption sites are SOLDIERSANGELS.COM and http://www.adoptaplatoon.org/ I have not used the former, so Laura is the expert there. I have used the latter. Despite the name, they do both group and individual support and both care package and pen-pal only assignments (or at least they did several years ago when I worked with them). They also assign multiple contacts to each soldier (or did then), so that if any individual supporter falls through, the troop is not left out. AdoptaPlatoon at one point had an application and phone screen process, not sure about now. I believe that both of these sites have discussion forums to offer support and suggestions to the volunteers

An alternative to adoption is request filling. Sites like Any Soldier Inc. ... Where to Send ***** (my current fave) and Books For Soldiers - Care Packages For The MInd post requests made by deployed troops and supporters can send in response to those requests. Booksforsoldiers has an applicaiton process and a forum-based request process whereby members make notation of requests filled. Anysoldier members do not indicate what they have sent to requests, but provide some features to get a feel for how much support a group has been given. Personally, I prefer filling requests because it allows me to jump in and out of it depending on what's going on in my life. I found it difficult for me to communicate month after month with adoptees that did not respond (but that's just me) - I ran out of things to say!

Just one caveat, many reputable troop support sites will not allow a minor to participate without parental involvement. Even if they did, I would urge you to keep watch over your daughter's participation. Boys will be boys, and deployed boys can be little horndogs, if you know what I mean. I met a girl once who was a volunteer who told stories about web cam exploits that blew me away. And I have personally been asked if I'd participate in activities that I wasn't interested in and I'm in my 40s! The rewards far outweigh these kind of rare things though!!!

If you have any questions about any of these and/or the contents and mechanics of mailing letters and care packages to deployed troops, don't hesitate to PM or e-mail me. I have oodles of experience in this area....it's almost an illness. LOL

cj/


ETA: You can get around the male/female thing by requesting a female soldier for adoption, or selecting female soldiers when filling requests.

Part 2, the basics:

Military mail is handled by the military. When you send a package or letter, you are sending it via the USPS to a US location (APO or FPO) where it is turned over the the Military Post Service for delivery to its final destination. So, from a postage perspective, you are sending regular rates to a domestic address (APO/FPO AP is on the west cost, APO/FPO AE is on the east coast). You can only use USPS for sending to deployed military, not UPS, FedEx, etc. A 41c stamp sends a letter, books/DVDs can be send media mail cheaply, you can stuff a Priority Mail Flat Rate Box to the gills and send it for $8.95. For packages you will have to fill out a customs form, available at your PO.

What to send? Well, the letters are always the most important thing. And these folks just like to hear "normal" stuff....what's going on at home, the silly thing your kid did, pop culture, etc. along with a few kind words and thank yous for their service. I stay away from emotionally charged subjects like the war, politics, etc. For packages, the thing to bear in mind is that these folks are kind of in their own prison. There is no hopping in the car and going to Walmart, to pick up their favorites or choose a magazine. If they have a PX, the selection is usually quite limited and the young enlisted guy tends not to have much disposable income anyways....so anything from home is usually welcome, but I've found that magazines, snacks, and DVDs are pretty universal. The more you get to know your soldier and his/her needs, the more you can customize to his/her situation. The amenities at the various locations in Iraq and Afghanistan vary widely.....with Afghanistan tending to be more primitive as Iraq has built up considerably. Many troops are getting by only with the help of care packages from families and supporters.

As far as care packages are concerned, the one thing to bear in mind is the weather. Your package will be subjected to the high heat of the region between April-Oct/Nov, so contents need to be able to survive that. No chocolate, for sure, during the summer months (except peanut M&Ms seems to make it). Even things like gummie bears and fruits snacks will melt into a big colorful blob. Do not mix toiletries other than oral health with food. In the enclosed package and in the heat, the scents will mingle and the food will need to be tossed (but your soldier wont' tell you that )

Hope that helps.

cj/

Wow Cj, thanks for all the tips. This is definately something we are planning on doing and am finding this quite helpful.

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Eileen

**Some people are like Slinky's, not really good for anything, but you can't help laugh when you see one tumble down the stairs**

Yes, I didn't want to get you involved if you didn't want to be. I'm so glad that you posted. You truly are our resident expert on this topic.

I'm appreciating the information in this thread. Thanks to all!

Hello.
My daughter and i did this a few years back (wow now that i think of it it was when she was in 5th grade and now she is going into 10th). We really enjoyed doing this.

We went through the organization called adoptaplatoon. Welcome to AdoptaPlatoon. You do not have to adopt a entire platoon, we just had one soldier. I felt really good going through this organization. They call and make sure you are real before giving out our soldiers info. (at least they called back then) I liked that they were protective of the soldiers and just didnt hand out names all over.

My daughter was VERY surprised when her soldier turned out to be a woman, she thought that was really cool! We sent her a letter weekly and a package monthly. At the holidays we would get her class to make cards and donate stuff that our soldier would share with her platoon.

Our soldier got to go home to her famliy, and my daughter cried with joy that her soldier was going to now be able to tell her daughter bedtime stories, as that was one of the things our soldier said she missed most. We had planned on adopting another, but then I got laid off at work and wasn't able to.

Hope this helped.

Those are all great ideas.....one thing I just want to say is most of the guys (and girls) have plenty of access to movies....It's a really big thing over there! I know from experience with DH and his Troops things they loved were the books, magazines and regular tv shows, ones with the commercials left in.......
It's the little things that really matter, nothing is too small! When we pack things to mail to DH when he's gone, or his friends who are there now we put everything in ziploc bags, not just to keep things seperate, but you would be surprised at the number of times we get thanked for the bags One thing we have recently started sending are the invidual drink mixes........these have been a huge hit especially for those who have limited access to the "outside" world, because water can get very boring and these can easily be mixed in the canteens or camelbacks.......

I just think its wonderful that you are all interested in doing this.....it gets frustrating when I hear soldiers talking about getting nothing from home.

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

Hi Guys!

Just wanted to thank you for this information. It's not something I'd even thought of doing, but my daughter and I wound up adopting a soldier. I was looking for something we could do together that would have some real value, and when I saw this thread I just knew this would be it. My daughter needs to practice her writing, and what better way. I'm also glad someone mentioned the single drink mixes and being good because I'd thought of that and wondered if they get anything but water over there. We're sending our first letter this week and hopefully a care package next week. If any of you have anymore suggestions for the care package please post. We're trying to keep it reasonable as far as price goes though. Not a lot of $$ to go around, but with everything I learn here.. a little goes a long way.

Beef jerky seems to be a universal favorite, although it's not cheap. Even if a troop doesn't like a particular item his/herself, if it's high demand, he/she can share or trade it. Propel drink mixes seem to be popping up a lot in requests lately, because they help with electolyte loss. Other protein and healthy snacks (nuts, seeds, Slim Jims, meal replacement bars, trailmix, etc) are popular as well.

Other ways to keep it cheap is to pick up free magazine subscriptions (on the Just Freebies board, for example) and send those along when they come in. I black out or otherwise obscure my mailing address so that it isn't floating around the Middle East. Also, Salvation Army and your local "friends of the library" may have books for sale; mine do for 50c. I scour those and am able to find unread paperbacks of general interest that can be sent inexpensively via media mail. The magazines can go Bounded Printed Material.

cj/

Mabear -

I would love to hear ANY and ALL insider tips that you have. Sometimes my contacts are too polite to ask for things and/or tell me when something sent just didn't work out...

cj/

Most of the time the guys and gals are just really happy to get whatever, just to know someone out there still cares about them.......You had a really great list going...the movies were the only thing that really stuck out to me, because I know that is one thing most have really easy access too......feel free to PM me any time....It always makes me feel good to hear of people wanting to do things for the troops because I see so many of them get forgotten, and it really breaks my heart.

__________________
"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

I think that the need for DVDs might depend on the location. The well-established bases, like LSA Anaconda or COB Speicher, likely do have a good MWR with a DVD checkout system. I know units at Al Asad Air Base that have movies on a share drive that each troop has access to.....download and play in their living quarters.

On the other hand, there are many places, especially in Afghanistan, where the FOB conditions are much more austere and MWR facilities are minimal and there it seems that DVDs are still in demand. I think the message here is that because conditions vary so greatly there is not a one-size-fits-all needs list.

cj/

When I say they have access to DVD's I do not mean where they can check them out, or dealing with MWR....many are getting DVD's by let's just say other means, and then they circulate them among each other, DH was not on a well established FOB when he was there, nor did he have access to a px. Older movies are a good idea, because they usually have plenty of access to new release and movies not yet on DVD....Older movies can be hard to come by, especially old westerns. Every Soldier is different, all anyone can do is develop a relationship with them to find out their particular needs......

__________________
"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

Ahh....got it. I know what you're talking about now.

cj/