Give Thanks to Our Soldiers

Thanksgiving is about twelve days away. We are all busy getting our house organized, clean up, moving furniture around, and host the party of the year. We gather supplies, buy decorations, and stock up on foods. It is the happiest occasion for families around the country. However, please take a moment to think of our soldiers, who stationed in Iraq, and Afghanistan. Some have no families back home, nor the basic necessities. They are there to keep us safe at home to celebrate holidays.

These are things we can do to show our soldiers our gratitude.

Sign up to adopt a soldier

• Adopt a US Soldier: Go to web site to check out and sign up. All information is kept confidential, and if you donate, it is tax deductible. This site will give you a suggestive list of what to send and how to send it.
• Any Soldier: This is another site that lists what to send, where to send and how to send your care package. On this site, you can also choose Any Marine, Any Sailor, Any Airman, and Any Coast Guard. You can go to where to send section and pick a name of a soldier you want to send an email, or a care package.
• Adopt a Platoon: You can find a list of items to send, ways to support our troops, and special campaigns such as Stockings from Santa, 2007.
• Soldiers' Angels: You can adopt a soldier, joining soldiers' angels, and donate to soldiers' angels. If you donate, a package will be send to a soldier.

Send a Thanksgiving package

• A care package does not have to be expensive. You can put together the items on the list that mostly requested such as personal hygiene, snacks, magazines, and board games.
• For Thanksgiving, you can send them home-made cookies, canned foods, turkey figurines, or Thanksgiving decorations.

Donate your crafts, or time

• If you are crafty, you can donate your fleece blankets, hats, and scarves to churches, where they are also running special projects to send oversea to our soldiers. The children in my church are making scarves as Christmas projects for this purpose.
• Check local newspapers for items they may need to send to our troops. Volunteer to wrap the packages if you have time.
• Call your school to ask if there is anything you can donate or do to show your support. At our school, the kids are writing letters, and drawing pictures.

If we just take a moment to think about our soldiers, and do something nice for others this joyous season, we are better people. As we're preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, let's give thanks to our troop. Just think, these soldiers don't even get to be with their families. They need us to cheer them up, and show them that we care to bring them home safely.

I am taking on this contentious issue, but at my church, we had just buried two young brave soldiers within two months, and I hope to make a different by writing this article.