Sunday, October 29, 2006

Operation Ship Apples or
Soldiers Love Apples


All about apples unless I decide to talk about something else. Recently we have been sending a few apples to our fine Men and Woman serving in Iraq. We as a company and the Mulbury Family have been not charging the shipping associated with these apple orders. It really started due to the fact our system wont figure the shipping for the APO addresses. We are presently looking to put a program together where people ordering on our site can contribute to "Operation Ship Apples" so we can expand this program. We are open to suggestions and are looking to possibly team up with a couple of groups that are shipping packages to Soldiers they don't even know. That program I think I would name "Operation Random Acts of Kindness".

But in the short time this has started it has grown to more than just picking up the tab for the shipping. It has given us a chance to correspond with great service people like Dan, Emily and Greta serving our Country in Iraq. My message to them has been one of my families appreciation for their service to protect us. That our prayers are with them as they serve like many others before them. My biggest thing is just to say THANK YOU FOR SERVING YOUR COUNTRY and that everyone I talk to are very proud of them. I realize that they are only a few of the proud but they are like all that serve beside them, they are our "Proud". I know when I chat back and fourth with them in just a few brief emails it makes me feel proud that people like them represent our Country.
Recently I had to fly to St. Louis for some meetings and on my way back flying US Air out of St. Louis the US Air employee handling the boarding walked over to two men in Uniform and had them board first. Maybe that is normal practice I do not know but I thought that it was nice. One persons way (or one company) of showing their appreciation and respect. They sat just across the row from me and come to find out they were on their way home to WV from boot camp/Tech training. One of the guys was excited that his grandmother was waiting up just to see him arrive home but his largest excitement seem to come from the thought of just sleeping in his own bed. I thought after I wish I had known his name, maybe send him a box of apples.

After we get done watching everything on CNN and FOX and sit and ponder wondering what we can do maybe it could be just so simple. So simple to say "Thank You" to a person in Uniform or without even knowing what their religious beliefs are saying "My Prayers are with you" or maybe it is making a small donation to one of the organizations that have organized to send packages to our troops like Jacobs Light Foundation, which touched my heart when I saw Dorine Kenney, Jacobs mom on the CNN show Glenn Beck.

In the end I know that our Military people and their families do so much to protect us and we do so little to show them our appreciation. Maybe all including myself should and could do just a little bit more.

So again THANK YOU FOR SERVING YOUR COUNTRY, my thoughts and prayers are with you. If your a person serving in Iraq or Afghanistan and maybe just need someone to trade emails, send me one.

Oh and to Glenn Beck. We all need to tell Glenn great that he has all these great stories but needs to make it easier to find things like Jacobs Light Foundation on his site. Come on Glenn your a great patriot and I love your show but you could cut one tab of advertising and "GB" to have a spot for the Troops. Remember Glenn these are the guys and girls that are going to pull the batteries out of your doomsday clock.

Paul Woolley