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(New)IMPORTANT UPDATES:
Update II:
Carren, wife of Chuck Ziegenfuss, the inspiration for Valour-IT, has an important update:
We met the Secretary of the Army, Dr. Fran Harvey, today. He was a very nice man and happens to be a fellow Pennsylvanian!!! Not sure if he's Steeler fan, though... forgot to ask. Anyway, Chuck told him about V-IT and I printed off some info from the Soldier's Angels website. He seemed impressed with the project and Chuck told him, "I think either the Army or the Department of Defense should support this project." Dr. Harvey said he would look into it further and took the info I gave him. After Dr. Harvey left the room his Aide de Camp gave me his card (he's an Army Major) and told me if we didn't hear anything in two weeks I was to contact him. So guess what.... in 14 days I will be contacting him if no one (i.e. Me and Chuck and/or Soldier's Angels) don't hear something. Who knows where this could lead V-IT!!!!
Update I:
We now have A designated page for bloggers to join the team of their choice (subliminal message ; AIRFORCE):
Project Valour-IT Competition Blogger Sign-Up
You can choose any branch you like. Here's where you can go to donate.
Air Force, the Best Team, whos logistics systems based on this mission is the most sophisticated, is flown by me (Mrs G), go here.
Army, lead by BlackFive, who's boots are smelly, go here.
Navy, manning the ship is Mrs Smash, who everyone knows cuss like a sailor, go here.
Marines, who all drink puppy juice before a mission, is headed by Holly Aho, go here.
Ok that's just some fun rivalry, please, don't anyone get offended. Blackfive's boots are not smelly, they smell like roses. I'm proud to stand with everyone of these guys so choose the team best for you, we're on the same mission here. To get team credit for a donation, you must donate via the "To Donate" button on the website of your team leader (This takes you to the proper Valour-IT PayPal donation page). Donations made via the regular Valour-IT website will not be part of your team's official competition total, though they will still go to the Valour-IT program. Any blogger (military or civilian) can join any team. Just visit the websites linked above, cough Air Force.
And on a serious note...
For those that believe the Air Force is not in the thick of things in this war and those who are under the false pretenses that they're only in secure locations, let me introduce you to a few people:
Injured Airman Fights His Way Back to Iraq
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Douglas Batchelder
Although a rocket attack cut his time short on his first deployment, an airman with the 64th Helicopter Maintenance Unit here pledged to himself that he would endure whatever pain was necessary to get back in the fight.
Following a year-and-a-half recovery from serious injuries to his hand, which could have ended his Air Force career, Senior Airman Douglas Batchelder, an armament systems journeyman, is back in Iraq.
And
03/10/05 KNXV: Airman Brian Kolfage has great attitude despite huge losses
Senior Airman Brian Kolfage
Senior Airman Brian Kolfage is one of the most seriously wounded soldiers to date to survive the war in Iraq. He is one of three soldiers in Iraq who are triple amputees, and he was almost a quadruple amputee.
And
Gannett: Three receive Purple Hearts
Airman first class Josh Rohrbacher, Staff Sgt. Duane Collins and Tech Sgt. Charles Hiser received the award, the 11th highest in the Air Force, Thursday at a ceremony for the RED HORSE at Port Clinton High School.
SO AIR FORCE STEP UP! Where at the bottom of the pole!
What is a "Valour-IT Blogging Fundraiser Competition" you ask?
Project Valour-IT is a Soldiers Angels project dedicated to provide voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, do on-line banking and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse. This can be instrumental in their recovery and help eliviate frustrations an injured soldier may endure.
The goal of this competition is to have a fun rivarly amongst the branches of service, so there will be 4 teams, Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Each team will have a blogging leader (not necessarily affiliated with that branch). For instance I've been assigned to the Air Force team and I'm not in the Air Force and Holly Aho the team leader for Marines is most certainly not a Marine, she's just too damn sweet. However BlackFive is team leader for the Army and he represents. And for the Navy, Mrs Smash is leading the charge.
Each team will compete through blogging about project Valour-IT in order to raise donations. Whichever team raises the most money for project Valour-IT between 11/2 and 11/11 is the winner of the competition. While teams are divided along military lines, you need not have been in the military in order to help or join a team. So pick the best Air Force team.
If you are interested in joining Mudville, which has been assigned to the Airforce team, leave a trackback or comment to this post, or send me an email to let me know you'd like to be on our team. We'll welcome you as a member. Uno Ab Alto !(One over all)
Regardless which team you choose to donate thru, all monies goes to one pot to help all soldier's wounded no matter what branch they are in.
Those that are not bloggers can also help project Valour-IT by telling friends and family as well as by email. Flyers are available for whoever would like to distribute them, bloggers and non-bloggers alike.
There are a few incentives such as receiving a Soldiers' Angels Coin which will be given to each donor during the competition. They are beautiful (I know I have one) Bloggers in the competition are also free to offer their own incentives for donations. Here at Mudville, every donation of $100.00 or more will get you free advertising for the time alloted for this competition. The fundraising competition will run from November 2 until Veteran's Day, November 11.
Need some motivation? Read this or this.
And a few tax issues to add:
1. It's a tax-deductible donation and eligible for
matching funds from companies who do that sort of
thing (see:
http://soldiersangels.org/valour/irsinfo.html for
proof for the cautious)
2. The snail mail address for those who'd rather
donate that way (scroll down at:
http://soldiersangels.org/valour/donate.html). We
will credit donations to the team competition if they
arrive during the competition days.
Our goal is to raise enough money to purchase 30 laptops. That's about $21,000, or roughly $5250 per team over a 10-day span.
SO JOIN OUR TEAM TODAY! AIM HIGH! UNO AB ALTO ! - (One over all!)
USAF No One Comes Close!
Links to learn more about Project Valour-IT:
UPDATE
Blogger Team Recognions :
Speed of Thought
Jawa Report
Conservative Thinking
Ugly American
Small Town Veteran
Euphoric Reality
My Side of the Puddle
The Air Force Pundit
Banter In Atlanter
The Middle Ground
Confessions of a Jesus Phreak
Kicking Over My Traces
Ipso Facto Cartoon Blog
The Flomblog
No Angst Zone
Decision '08
ViewFromTonka
Family Matters
baldilocks
T. Longren
Cool Blue Blog
Non blogger Team Recognitions :
Mr. & Mrs. Greyhawk, First of all I want to thank you both for being a part of Project Valor IT. The work that Soldier?s Angels is doing is truly amazing and any support they receive is well worth it. Thank you!I also wanted to ask to be a part of your team, although I do not have a blog. I have printed flyers and have them posted in my building. I also wanted to pass on that I made a donation through your website and I wanted to be sure the money went to the right team! J If there is anything else I need to do please let me know.
