Phone call from Baghdad

Our heros call to thank From Our Hearts for care packages ....

What a wonderful surprise! Benny Rankin, owner of T-Bone Tooter's Restaurant in Churchville, received a phone call today from Augusta County resident Mike Flook who is stationed in Baghdad.

His group of men, firefighters in Iraq, had received the first shipment of boxes from the From Our Hearts group and they were very grateful! Mike said he was so overwhelmed he had to call personally and thank everyone for what they're doing for them. He was so very, very touched that people back home hadn't forgotten about them and that people really cared.

He said his men had been down-in-the-dumps recently ... but the arrival of packages from home had boosted their morale and had them laughing and singing and checking out all the goodies -- "Look what's in this one!" -- and they felt appreciated.

There are 10 more men in that Unit so we are upping their shipment from 10 to 20 which will make our total shipments weekly at 160 care packages.

Want to help?
All the work that goes into setting up, packing, and mailing packages weekly is worth it when something happens like that one phone call ... or a letter of thanks ... or a photo of "our guys" over there. But it's only through help from the community that we're able to continue with this program.

What do we need? We need more items from the soldiers' Wish List (see http://www.fromrhearts.blogspot.com/) and donations to pay for shipping.

Items can be dropped off at CellOne in Statler Square Shopping Center
in Staunton, at Staunton Colonial Mall's Customer Service Desk, and at T-Bone Tooter's Restaurant in Churchville.

Donations can be mailed to: From Our Hearts, T-Bone Tooter's Restaurant, P.O. Box 504, Churchville, VA 24421.

Troop Wish List... AT&T Phone Cards, Air Fresheners (No Aerosol Cans), Baby Wipes / Wet Wipes, Band-Aids, Bandanna, Batteries, Beef Jerky, Book LightsBooks \ Brown Washcloth & Towels, Candy (No Chocolate), Canned Chicken, CD's & DVD's, Chapstick, Cheese (That can stand heat), Chips, Cookies, Crackers, Deoderant (Travel Size), Desitine, Disposable Cameras, Duct Tape, Electrical Tape, Eye Drops, Fans (Hand-held), First Aid Kits, foot Powder, Hankerchief, Lotion (Travel Size), Microwave Meals (Hormel), Neosporin, Off (Bug Repellant), Paper \ Envelopes \ Pens, Peanuts, Potted Meat, Powered Drink Mix, Ramen Noodles, Sewing Kits (Travel size), Shampoo (Travel size), Shop Towels, Slim Jims, Soap (Travel size), Soap Holders, Socks (White over the calf), Soup (Pop top, heat & serve), Stridex Pads, Sunflower Seeds, Toothbrush and holders, Toothpaste (Travel Size), Tuna, Twin Sheets / Bed pillows, Zip Ties, Ziplock bags (Qt & Gallon size), * Things not to send.... Pork Products, Chocolate, Aerosol Cans... Donations always welcomed for it allows us to purchase those items needed to make complete "Packages"....