Tuesday, January 10, 2006

ASY from Coast to Coast and Across the Ocean

The families of more than one hundred soldiers deployed to Iraq from Fort Campbell, Ky., are now just a few clicks away from communicating with their loved ones overseas thanks to America Supports You team member Operation Homelink. The group gave away 110 refurbished computers, donated by Dell, to the spouses or parents of Fort Campbell soldiers last week. For many families, the computers will greatly improve their communication, increasing emails from once or twice a week at public computers to once or twice a day from home. To date, Operation Homelink has handed out more than 1,300 computers to help soldiers stay connected with their families back home. Read more.

Soldiers stationed in Iraq will soon be receiving a special shipment of 10,000 baseballs and softballs from America Supports You member organization Operation Homefront. The project, dubbed Operation Softball, began as an effort by the Northwest Illinois Chapter of Operation Homefront, a nationwide organization dedicated to assisting U.S. military families, to collect 1,016 signed softballs to build a pyramid of support for our service members. The program was extended to April 15, 2006, with the new goal of collecting 10,000 autographed balls because of the tremendous outpouring of support. Operation Homefront is currently accepting donated and signed balls from businesses, churches, and citizens across the country. To learn more about Operation Softball, visit www.operationhomefront.net/nwillinois.

America Supports You partner USA Cares was recently awarded a $1,000,000 grant from the California Community Foundation to continue and expand their work serving the military community. USA Cares provides assistance to members of the Armed Forces and/or their families who have unmet needs due to death, injury, physical or mental detriment, or financial hardship. Over 1,700 military family members have been helped by USA Cares. The group was especially pleased because they were chosen for the grant without applying for it. For more information on USA Cares, go to www.usacares.us.