19 Sep 2022:
I'm very excited to give you this update! At the beginning of the summer we were able to send 180 women, representing multiple branches of services, from ALL across Korea, to the womens' retreat we organized. We were able to make welcome bags that had water bottles, drink mixes, tissues, granola bars, gum, pens - it was perfect. With the items that were not in large quantities we made giveaways - with the face masks, spa kits, journals and "fancy "pens. They were such a hit! We had enough giveaways so that one out of two people won something, which made it a really festive event. Many of you sent books and we were able to set up a "resource table" with not only the literature that was sent but also chapstick, toothbrushes, hand lotion, sanitizer, for those who forgot them. They snatched up the digital Bibles that were sent (brilliant idea by the way!). The women who attended let us know how much of a breath of fresh air it was to get away and focus on being better to themselves and to others. Really, the whole team came back on cloud nine. We are already preparing for next year's event and anticipating we have more than 200 military women attend. I will be again collecting the same sort of items as before (notebooks, religious books, and then "girlie" things share with the women - you can see the previous post about some of the items we collected). I've set up a designated area for the retreat as we begin to plan for the next one.
Our next big endeavor was vacation bible school - which many of you helped support (whoever sent a hundred bubbles and painting kits is amazing!). Just as a recap, our VBS is the largest in the Army - 300 children in person and 100 virtual. It took place in August and was a massive success. Thank you for all your help in supporting us support our military kids!
Which brings me to my Soldiers!
We have a lot of toiletry items that roll over from week to week, but the food items are always taken. We have set up two stations, one for food and one for "other" items. The food station is always empty when I come back the next week to replenish it. They will eat anything - BUT the popular things are the items that can substitute meals: cup-o-noodles, cans of soup, tuna, easy mac, yakisoba, fritos and chili combos. The holidays are coming so if you wanted to go ahead and send things for Christmas I can horde them away for use when the holidays come. We have loads of blank Christmas cards though - from before I even arrived here. Our unit has a small holiday party each year, if you send larger items or sets, I'll save them for the party and use them as door prizes to get everyone's spirits up.
A note about Korea: Korea seems to be the place the Army sends it's brand new Soldiers so for many of the Soldiers coming here, this is both their first time away from home and their first time overseas - all at once. The holidays become a particularly hard time for servicemembers. In my role I see a lot of Soldiers and I'd love to be able to have small "bundles" to give to Soldiers as depression threatens to creep up on some of the more junior Soldiers (and even the senior ones too).
If I could, I would like to ask for one personal request: Its going to sound silly, but if anyone lives where they sell On The Border tortilla chips (the cafe style ones) I would love a few bags of those. And maybe some hot sauce. I love unique hot sauces. I've been experimenting with my food here and have developed a taste for them so if you have a favorite, I'd love to try it.
This community really is the best. We are coming off a summer high with the womens' retreat and VBS and we are pushing hard into the holiday season as that is when morale is in need of the most cheering up. You all are remarkable, truly. Thank you for all that you do - and how you do it without any reward or recognition for yourself. Thank you.
11 Apr 2022I can't tell you how much your support has impacted those of us here! Our leadership is looking into setting up a nicer permanent location for the items I bring in (right now it's just a basket I bought with the items, and it sits on a desk - soon it will be a station!).
I wanted to let you know of TWO events that is worthy of your support!
~FIRST~
As you know from my first update, I've been working with the chapel to reach out to the women here. Well, they are putting together a Korea-wide womens retreat. It's a big endeavor reaching out to ALL of the military women here in Korea (not just my installation!). They have only just begun to put everything together but one of the ideas was to have welcome bags for each of the ladies - 150 is what they are hoping to have attend. They are wanting to include:
-granola bars
-tissue packs
-toothbrushes/travel toothpaste (just in case people need it and forget)
-pens
-packs of gum/mints
If there is anyone who has access to 150 "other things" (like journals or notepads or face masks or ... really anything) I think they will be happy to include them in the bags! If you would like to help support this retreat, when you send a package, just include that information somewhere and I'll be sure to get to the chapel. The retreat is in May so if you are wanting to support it, send it soon!
~SECOND~
Camp Humphreys, where I'm stationed, operates the largest vacation bible school in the U.S. Army (last year they had 300-children attend in person, with another 100 online - all military brats). They are gearing up for it again and are gathering donations specifically for the virtual children (it mostly targets those children who arrive in country after in-person registration has reached capacity, or if they are sick/quarantined). Those children receive a bag that has each day's crafts and they follow along online - however they'd like to add some "extra" items such as pencils, pens, crayons, stickers, and snacks (they would love those individually packaged goldfish or cheeze its). If you would like to help in that way, when you send your package, just indicate that it is for the VBS children. VBS here at Humphreys is not until August so we have some time.
As always, your support is so deeply appreciated! I try to write back to many of you but haven't quite made it around to everyone - so if you haven't received a thank you, please know it's not from a lack of gratitude. You all are increadible. Thank you!
03 Apr 2022
I can't tell you how much your support has impacted those of us here! Our leadership is looking into setting up a nicer permanent location for the items I bring in (right now it's just a basket I bought with the items, and it sits on a desk - soon it will be a station!).
I wanted to let you know of TWO events that is worthy of your support!
~FIRST~
As you know from my first update, I've been working with the chapel to reach out to the women here. Well, they are putting together a Korea-wide womens retreat. It's a big endeavor reaching out to ALL of the military women here in Korea (not just my installation!). They have only just begun to put everything together but one of the ideas was to have welcome bags for each of the ladies - 150 is what they are hoping to have attend. They are wanting to include:
-granola bars
-tissue packs
-toothbrushes/travel toothpaste (just in case people need it and forget)
-pens
-packs of gum/mints
If there is anyone who has access to 150 "other things" (like journals or notepads or face masks or ... really anything) I think they will be happy to include them in the bags! If you would like to help support this retreat, when you send a package, just include that information somewhere and I'll be sure to get to the chapel. The retreat is in May so if you are wanting to support it, send it soon!
~SECOND~
Camp Humphreys, where I'm stationed, operates the largest vacation bible school in the U.S. Army (last year they had 300-children attend in person, with another 100 online - all military brats). They are gearing up for it again and are gathering donations specifically for the virtual children (it mostly targets those children who arrive in country after in-person registration has reached capacity, or if they are sick/quarantined). Those children receive a bag that has each day's crafts and they follow along online - however they'd like to add some "extra" items such as pencils, pens, crayons, stickers, and snacks (they would love those individually packaged goldfish or cheeze its). If you would like to help in that way, when you send your package, just indicate that it is for the VBS children. VBS here at Humphreys is not until August so we have some time.
As always, your support is so deeply appreciated! I try to write back to many of you but haven't quite made it around to everyone - so if you haven't received a thank you, please know it's not from a lack of gratitude. You all are increadible. Thank you!
08 Mar 2022Thank you to everyone who has sent packages thus far! We’ve been able to put items together from different packages to create some great themed morale boosters - here are my favorites:
-A relaxing Valentine’s Day basket (with some decor)
-“Good morning” basket with coffees and individual cereals (great idea by the way with the cereal!)
-“Stress Away” basket with fuzzy socks, journals, pens, spa items
-“Sunshine” basket with a fuzzy daisy, a swaying flower, journals, pens
-“Games” basket with different card games, puzzle books and even some 3D wooden puzzle blocks
-“Friendship” basket - two matching sets of mugs, drinks, spa items (the Soldiers tag a battle buddy that they share the basket with)
We’ve also had a lot of “extra” things and we’ve been able to set up a rather large grab-and-go tray in the main living area for Soldiers to grab as they are coming in and out of their rooms which has been popular (we swap it out every Friday). We took a bunch of the extra protein items (beef jerky, nuts, tuna, etc) and made a Super Bowl basket giveaway. It’s been great and so exciting for the Soldiers.
Things that were very popular with the women’s ministry:
-Journals and pens
-“Spa” items
-Coffee items
Things that were popular for the rest of the Soldiers:
-microwavable or canned meals
-Snacks and protein/granola bars
-Full sized toothpaste (I didn’t expect that)
-Anything fitness related (protein powers/bars, resistance bands, hand weights, shaker bottles - literally everything)
Things to consider:
-Easter is coming, if you send stuff now we can incorporate it into our April baskets
-Women’s religious items are welcome
-We have a lot of hand sanitizer, but those foaming or gel hand soaps (in a pump) would be great in our latrines
-When sending female personal hygiene items (namely pads) they prefer them to be in the original packaging for sanitary reasons
-Same with snacks - the snacks that come opened and separated into other bags generally get thrown away for safety reasons (keep them in the original packaging please).
Things we don’t need:
-Greeting cards (we have enough cards to last years!)
Thank you again for all the support. I wish you could also see the reactions of the Soldiers. It’s truly been personally satisfying to be able to pass on these items to them. Thank you!
11 Jan 2022
First of all I want to say thank you for your support. You have provided support during two of my previous deployments (and three of my wife's previous deployments). Thank you!
I am in Korea and our living conditions are great. Soldiers living on post in the barracks have all American amenities and access to washer/dryers and a dayroom with a small kitchen.
Originally I hadn't planned on applying however our chapel is working on supporting female soldiers specifically and expressed a desire to have things to provide them. As I have had excellent support in the past from AnySoldier, I thought this would be a good time to apply again. Ideally they would be able to create small baskets to distribute sporadically throughout the deployment (most single soldiers are only here for a year) so they are thinking in terms of "themes" (like a coffee basket or a cooking basket). Here are some suggestions - without specifically asking for items:
- fitness items
- beauty items
- cooking (like spices or kits)
- "peaceful" items (fuzzy socks, mugs, lavender scented everything, journals - things like that)
- "summer" (sunglasses, sunscreen, beach towel)
- coffee items
- girly office items
And the idea is to keep this rolling throughout the year, so if you see some holiday items on sale, that would be great for us to hold on to until next fall/winter (no candles though, they aren't allowed in the office or barracks). This would be great for a church or other women's organization but we would love help from anyone! We have plenty of baskets so we don't need those - but if you see something you think a female would like, send it!
Again, thank you for all the support in the past and I look forward to passing along items to our chapel team. Thank you!
