Archive for the 'Valour-IT' Category

ValOUR-IT: Don’t Forget the Auctions…

November 9th, 2007 by xformed

Sometimes you just gives, sometimes you gets…

Besides just laying out some hard earned money for the great feeling of helping to put lives back together, some people have volunteered to part with their “stuff” (for a price – name yours!) for the highest bidder.

F/A-18C Model

Navy/Coast Guard’s own SteelJaw Scribe has a factory model of an F/A-18C up on the block for your collection.

Get over there and grab some stuff (and chip the bid price in towards more ValOUR-IT donations)!

Category: Charities, Military, Navy, Supporting the Troops, Valour-IT | Comments Off on ValOUR-IT: Don’t Forget the Auctions…

ValOUR-IT: Soldier’s Angels Coin for Your Donation!

November 8th, 2007 by xformed

Soldier's Angels Challenge Coin
Nice to have. A tangible memento and reminder of your commitment to supporting the troops. Also a conversation piece to have the opening to tell stories about what Soldier’s Angels does for our troops and their families..

Enough marketing. How, you ask? Details here. If you have a spare $25 (but thing more, WAY more) to donate…a coin can be yours, too! (Psst! Donate to Navy/Coast Guard!)

Category: Charities, Military, Supporting the Troops, Valour-IT | 1 Comment »

ValOUR-IT: Outside the Headlines

November 7th, 2007 by xformed

There is wonderful news coming out of Iraq these days. Charts show IEDs are down, attacks on Coalition bases are down, engagements with terrorists and insurgents are down, civilian deaths are down. Down, down, down. And all while there are more soldiers walking and living among the locals.

But there’s something hidden going on here that doesn’t make the headlines: the injured. For every loss of life among American soldiers, several others are usually wounded.

It is those publicly-uncounted wounded that Valour-IT serves. While their buddy is laid to rest, they are the ones fighting for their lives in a hospital bed. As the family of the fallen is carried in the arms of their friends and fellow military families, the wounded soldiers are wondering what their lives are going to be like with broken bodies that will never be the same again. As their buddy is being laid to rest with honors, the politicians make a quick sweep through wards filled with wounded that will still be there after the camera flashes stop. The families of the living struggle to put one foot in front of the other and the wounded wonder if the prosthetic feet are as good as everybody says. The fallen’s loved ones dream of the day it will stop feeling like a knife in their chest, and the wounded hope that when the haze of the painkillers lifts, the PTSD and TBI won’t be as bad as they seem right now.

Loved ones whose hearts are aching in loss reach out to those around them, express themselves, plan memorials for their fallen hero, bellow out the rage over what has been ripped from them, mourn the futures lost.

Not so for the warfighter, whose connectedness is dependent on who visits or calls that day, and who is now discovering that the greatest indignity of severed nerves, shattered bones, and amputated limbs is that the soldier who once walked the streets in confidence and power is now cared for like a baby until he can find a way to make things work again.

Give that soldier something he can do for himself now–a way to express himself, write about his fallen brother, blow out the rage over the violence done to his body and build the courage to face the future that seems so impossible for now. A laptop will do that–give him confidence, dignity, self-expression, connectedness with those who will help him find a new equilibrium in his world-turned-on-its-head.

Giving out from 30 to 100 laptops per month since June, Valour-IT is in more demand than ever. We literally scraped the bottom of the barrel with our last delivery of laptops, and Soldiers’ Angels has said they cannot allocate any more funds for us until March 2008. We are filling vital gap that the government has missed, but we cannot do it without funding.

Don’t turn your face away from this just because it’s easier to think things are getting better, or because it’s too uncomfortable to think of their suffering while you are whole. They don’t want your pity; just your support. What better way to support them, to show you believe in their recovery and their future than to give them a laptop that they can operate regardless of the depth of their injuries. Please, help us help them.

I know how much it means to the guys who are stuck lying on their backs, unable to use their hands to so much as scratch. Being fed, bathed, taken care of like an infant—not exactly a fitting role for a warrior who’s used to being the one who helps others. It sure as hell wasn’t a role that I wanted, although there were many people who came to see me who helped…At that time I had no use of either hand. I know how humbling it is, how humiliating it feels. And I know how much better I felt, how amazingly more functional I felt, after Soldiers’ Angels provided me with a laptop and a loyal reader provided me with the software. I can’t wait to do the same, to give that feeling to another soldier at Walter Reed.

Chuck Ziegenfuss, inspiration for Valour-IT

The button is up top center to make a donation.  Little donations help, as do big ones.  Oh, and pass the word about this program.

Category: Charities, Military, Supporting the Troops, Valour-IT | 1 Comment »

ValOUR-IT: Skippy San Joins the Fray!

November 7th, 2007 by xformed

Skippy San will add dollars to ValOUR-IT – Navy/Coast Guard Team if you guess something..

Check it out!

Come on, there are wounded troops counting on us!

Category: Charities, Military, Supporting the Troops, Valour-IT | Comments Off on ValOUR-IT: Skippy San Joins the Fray!

Technology Tuesday

November 6th, 2007 by xformed

Technology, in and of itself, like money, is morally neutral. It’s all in how we use it. For instance, ValOUR-IT, using the computer technology brought to us by the space race, has been lightened and miniaturized to the point that our wounded troops can use it to communicate. The fund drive is still on…donate (button at the top of the page to help you out).

Anyhow, a few years back, I posted about data ports being put into vehicles. Those ports have become much more used than just for the shop to run diagnostics on your car….sit back, do a little reading and see what I mean.

Anyhow, technology, like legislation, also has it’s “unintended consequences” in our daily lives.

Update: Just found this info on EZ-Pass and privacy.

BTW, Fred Fry International is a great site for current maritime (meaning other than naval) news!

Category: Charities, Technology, Technology Tuesday, Valour-IT | 2 Comments »

ValOUR-IT: A Day’s Pay

November 5th, 2007 by xformed

The concept sprang forth last year, when a lady working for Flag Gazer decided to forgo the money owed her for a day of labor.

That’s pretty magnanimous. How about take a moment to click here and read the story yourself.

Lemme see….50 weeks/yr, 5 days/week…250 “working days” for the average American work year (math made easy for bean counters before computers and it persists). Take annual earnings and divide by 250. What’s the number? Can you see your way clear to place that sum so others can have a far better quality of life?

Category: Charities, Military, Supporting the Troops, Valour-IT | 1 Comment »

It’s ValOUR-IT Day Everyday! (Through 11/11/2007)

November 5th, 2007 by xformed

Have you ever been hopeless? Whether for a few minutes, or for maybe years on end, consider how you might feel when you awake missing the ability to function in life easily…it’s time to make a change in the lives that are there now.

The competition continues. BUT: It’s not so much a competition, as an opportunity to affect the lives of people who still can talk, but have been disabled in a such a way as to not be able to poke at a keyboard like so many of us can.

Would I like the Navy/Coast Guard Team to come out on top? Yep. So I ask you to consider chipping in a few bucks. Can you skip a cup of Starbucks over-caffeinated coffee today and put that 4 some dollars (heck, just round it to $5!) in the kitty to help someone keep in touch with family and friends, as well as to be a capable worker when they show up to be employed in the civilian sector?

At the end of the day (or the competition, in this case), it’s not about the Navy?Coast Guard bloggers getting bragging rights, it’s about men and women, who see a person walk into their room in the hospital and give them something to get them re-connected with life. Donate to some team, or no team, just donate.

Your contribution has the real possiblity of completely changing the course of some people’s lives, and not only the wounded ones, but those lives the are connected to: spouses, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, etc, etc, etc. You get my “drift.” You are dispensing more than your hard earned bucks with the click of the mouse or the mailing of a check: You are donating HOPE!

Besides being able to just know your contribution did that, you might even find something on the auction block that is to your liking, particularly if it’s able to be personalized to you. Check the auction page out for details.

Also, up on eBay, there are some Vince Flynn books up to help the cause. If you win, they are autographed with your message!

And for the other teams:

Navy/CG came out of nowhere (well, to be factual, dead last) last year and overnight smoked across the finish line…don’t forget it…

Category: Charities, Coast Guard, Military, Navy, Public Service, Supporting the Troops, Valour-IT | 2 Comments »

AAAHHH! The WEEKEND is Here!

November 2nd, 2007 by xformed

Don’t even think about it, Navy/Coast Guard team!

This weekend is to do the work the big bloggers (John, Matt, Jimbo and Mrs G) won’t do – taking it to the streets.

They must just sit about, sipping coffee drinks with odd names, dreaming of victory (except for Mrs G, who might have not had her coffee and has fallen asleep at the wheel, like John the Zoomie did last year).

So, find some brew that appears to resemble the mid-watch coffee, get a full mug (borrow one from your CPO’s Mess is you’ve lost yours) and hit the bricks. Talk ValOUR-IT up something fierce, get them to nod and say (using the “repeat back” method of reinforcement): “I will go home, log on the net and contribute to our wounded service members, via the Navy/Coast Guard team.” Make them say it, without errors, three times in a row (it’s a memory thing) before you let them out of your vicinity.

Bring it home for Navy/Coast Guard!

End note: No “complaining” and whining. Get on with it. You know you’ll feel better when Monday’s number show it’s worth your effort…

Tracked back @: Steeljaw Scribe

Category: Blogging, Charities, Coast Guard, Military, Navy, Public Service, Supporting the Troops, Technology, Valour-IT, Where's MEGEN? | 3 Comments »

ValOUR-IT on the Radio 10/31/2007!

October 31st, 2007 by xformed

From FbL – today’s “Comm Plan:”

Valour-IT is going to be the subject on two different radio shows tomorrow (WEDNESDAY):

Patti will be talking about it live on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mypoint at 0930 Eastern.

Mrs. Greyhawk and FbL will be talking about it on the Andrea Shea-King radio show at 2100 Eastern. Mrs. Greyhawk will also be talking about her recent meeting with the President. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ASKShow

Also…today will be a GREAT day for MEGEN…News at 11!

Category: Charities, Military, Supporting the Troops, Valour-IT, Where's MEGEN? | Comments Off on ValOUR-IT on the Radio 10/31/2007!

MEGEN on the Road and With Recruiters

October 29th, 2007 by xformed

From sunny place, MEGEN makes an appearance.

Air Force Recruiter with MEGEN

FbL didn’t tell me she was going to let the trophy be handled by other than Navy personnel….particularly ones that show the same degree of interest Noonan did last campaign. No wonder they didn’t meet goal!
Marine Recruiter with MEGEN
On the other hand, the Green (well, ok, tan) machine looked like they are eager to get into the fight. I like that in a Marine!Tracked back @ Fuzzilicious ThinkingValOUR-IT Update, AM 10/29/2007: The sun is just rising, but the Navy/Coast Guard Team, during the mid-watch, has already begun collecting for the cause. I guess ther other three uniformed services haven’t had their coffee yet. Ladies and gentlemen of the USMC, USA and USAF, it’s “Stand To” time….get on it!

Category: Charities, Military, Supporting the Troops, Valour-IT, Where's MEGEN? | 2 Comments »

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