Troopathon Tidings, Y’all

Yikes! The drive for care packages for our soldiers ends tomorrow night!

While we were looking somewhere else, Move America Forward has been holding a bloggers’ competition to raise money for care packages for the troops in Afghanistan, known to the soldiers deployed there as “The Sandbox”. Or at least that’s the name we can safely use here at Gates of Vienna.

For some reason there was a slip between the cup and the lip. PatriotUSA told us about this endeavor last week, so an email went out with a request to be included in the Anti-Jihad competition group, headed up by the redoubtable Robert Spencer.

While waiting for waiting a response from Troopathon, we carried on writing thank-you notes for our own fundraiser. But it remained at the back of my mind, “ask Troopathon how to get into the Anti-Jihad group for the care package competition”. The Baron finally emailed Mr. Spencer for help; it turned out that we were already in his group. Duh.


Here’s the deal:
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The basic care package is $24.99. Each one includes a personalized message and items that our troops have requested. The package has items such as sunscreen, drinks, deodorant, coffee, etc. The list they put out doesn’t seem to include magazines with cute girls in them, but I hope they have a few, say, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

When you go to the page, use Gates of Vienna as your referring blog. The Anti-Jihad group gets the credit for your donation, and maybe we’ll beat Hot Air. Here’s the page with the current numbers.

This is short notice, and I apologize for that. Nonetheless, please consider those guys slogging out there in the heat, far from home.

It has usually been our custom to tithe all our income, including donations. As I have told many of our donors, the Cosmos usually shows up with an outstretched hand, pointing in the direction that is most needful at the moment. Thus we will start the ball rolling by contributing a large part of our tithe from our recent fundraising to the Troopathon care packages.

As many of our donors know, it is my belief that whatever one gives from the heart is returned tenfold.

“Gratitude is a noble virtue; you have to respect yourself to be grateful to others. Only those who feel blessed can be filled with gratitude. It is a kind of courtesy of the heart.”

                — James Lewis

Be noble.


We’ll keep you updated between now and tomorrow night. I sure do wish they’d run this until July 4th. Maybe next year.