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From cheese grits to flea collars

Sep-10-2004 » Filed Under: Homefront

Interesting article with good information about groups such as the Fallen Heroes Fund and the Military Pets Foster Project (Dog Sitter?).

[Link to Full Article]
By Carly Baldwin, The Christian Science Monitor

NEW YORK – After her cousin was deployed to Iraq, Nicole Bargallo wanted to support the war effort. Yet working full time at a New York law firm, she was at a loss for how and when to help. So when her firm, Greenberg Traurig, decided to send care packages to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, she eagerly lent a hand.

"I collected money from people throughout the office," she recalls, standing amid boxes packed with energy bars, disposable cameras, children's drawings, and flea collars that soldiers wear on their ankles to ward off sand flies.

"The troops always need our support, no matter what the feelings about the war may be back at home," she says.

Ms. Bargallo is part of a national movement by companies and citizens supporting the war effort in any way they can - from prepaid calling cards given by junior high schoolers in Massachusetts to large corporate donations.

Even while the public's ambivalence about the war has steadily grown, the will to help troops has, if anything, steadily risen. Fearful that troops will suffer the same sense of isolation as those who served in Vietnam, and eager to separate the troops' plight from a bitter debate at home about the war, Americans are pitching in. And while victory gardens may be few and far between, while no one is rationing butter or gas, gestures of support are frequent and far-flung. [...]

William White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City, started the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a charity that gives unrestricted grants to families that have suffered the loss of a loved one in Iraq. In the past six months, he says, the fund has raised $18 million. Avon and Anheuser-Busch donated $1 million each to the Fallen Heroes Fund, and the people of Kuwait sent a $3.5 million check. [...]

For individuals, though, the motives are often simpler. In the days following Sept. 11, Steve Albin started the nation's first pet-sitting nonprofit to "adopt" troops' pets during deployment. It's been endorsed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as the "sole military pets provider," and Mr. Albin says the South Carolina-based service has spread through all 50 states, Europe, and Asia. In the all-volunteer Military Pets Foster Project, he says, people "have found a niche and a low-key, comfortable way they can show their support."


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