Today was awesome - I want to write this all down before I forget anything!

Check out some of the photos of this event we posted in our Photo Gallery!

I'd like to begin by apologizing because I will inadvertently omit a name or two or get something wrong. Trust me - it's not intentional. I am getting O-L-D and these days, I'm lucky if I can remember what the date is!

     This morning, my son, Ryan, and I arrived at our center at 9:00 AM - expecting to be the first ones there. No such luck. John Scanlon had beaten us to it and had already started assembling the boxes.  Jim & Elinor Burns got there early too, and within minutes, the center was packed!  Doesn't anyone show up late anymore?     I didn't even have time to drink my cup of coffee.

     The volunteers were incredible: Kristy Tiede, Libby Richardson, Susan Dawid, Lydia Granitto, Sue Chechoski, Donna Brbovic and Beth Bellucci immediately took charge of the packing. Dave O'Hagan, Dika Nussberg, Susan Perrone, RoseMary Nelson, Phyllis Kloeppner and Melissa Brookson followed suit - they all know the ropes and were able to help newcomers like the Daly family, Bill Boylan, Ginni M., Micky Milo, Rob Krajcik, Jamie Krajcik and several others.

     Jeannette Manchester and Lara Paschalidis came from Norwalk - it was great to see them both again after many months. Jeannette was dubbed my "Sergeant at Arms" since she never left my side and helped me coordinate the mailing labels.

     We also had help from: SSgt Fredy Tellocastillo , The Kennedy family, Emily Davis, Leah Gregorio, Leigh Dawid, The Connecticut Blue Star Mothers, Gerry Wright,  The American Legion Riders, and Full Throttle Magazine's Dave & Fran Sgro and so many others!

     Joe Garrett showed up with a CELLO which we shipped along with 3 trumpets 2 violins, a karaoke machine, a Christmas tree and decorations to Jorge Rosario's unit in Iraq!  One of the trumpets was a Selmer Cornet given to us by a Retired Naval Captain in Tennessee named Charles Wilhoit Jr. (a.k.a."Daisy") who gave us funds to pay postage for many holiday boxes this week.  We also received funds to buy additional instruments from Navy Vietnam Veteran, Ricky Collins in Texas, and Yoli Wheeler and her husband SGT Michael "Chris" Wheeler in Florida. (Michael recently returned from Iraq and posted a message on our blog!) 

      The Burnses and Fred Racke (a newcomer & ESGR volunteer) worked on the customs forms.

     Bob O'Donoghue drove all over the place picking up danishes, enormous 6' sandwiches from SUBWAY, extra drinks and extra packing tape. He managed to avoid the news team, too, which he seemed very happy about.

  News Channel 8 showed up to film the event, which aired this evening. There was a link on their web site which showed the news video, but it may now be in ARCHIVED news. Look for the one that says, "Volunteers Packing Care Packages for the Military - story by Carolee Salerno"

  Even Ryan got busy screening cards and checking out donations of new CDs which had the "adult advisory"  labels on them!

Our highlight of the day was the honor of having 3 Very Special Guests come help us.  Each of them just returned from Iraq, and all three of their units received care packages from our organization:

Shawn Kennedy (Charlie Co. 1/25 Marines) who cut up a "gazillion" cardboard boxes for us and packed boxes with his family.

Alex Granitto (Navy) who took charge of the multiple trips to the post office and other packing needs his mother, Lydia gave him.

SGT Jeff Horovitz (Army Reserve who served at the Mental Health Clinic at Camp Anaconda in Iraq) who came with his wife and two children all the way from Rhode Island. They all said they definitely want to come back again!

     My original goal was to pack 100 holiday boxes for our deployed troops in Iraq & Afghanistan. The Rocky Hill Post Office told us we needed to get those boxes out soon - so we were on a mission. Donna Brbovic brought 100 boxes with her from Massachusetts to help us reach this goal.

We had special holiday requests from:

Captain Jorge Rosario (who asked for a karaoke machine, trumpet, violin, guitar, cello and Christmas tree with decorations). MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! 

  SSG Myron Jamerson who wanted the holiday movie theme items (2 movies donated by Bill Arendt, CT Army National Guard, were sent along with donated movies from Joe Garrett and Nancy Johnston.  In fact we had extra movies that we were able to send to include in other units' care packages. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! 

  1LT Brad Stark requested the "My God Boxes" for his unit. We sent him every last one we had in stock. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! 

 We also wanted to pack boxes for a few troops we know such as: CPL Larry Kessler, SGT Jon Tiede (Kristy's brother);  SSG Bill Manchester (Jeannette's brother) and CPL Michael Johnston (Nancy's son). MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!  

The remainder of the care packages were sent to many other units of troops we've never met.

RESULTS:

  We packed up 137 holiday boxes - each box weighed approx. 65 pounds! That equates to 8,900 pounds of donations being shipped to approximately 3,500 troops!  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!   

Inside each care package we enclosed a note with a beautiful holiday card designed by Pilar Cyr, who wasn't able to attend.

I held back tears as I looked around and saw many Vietnam Veterans there, packing and carrying boxes for us. They were able to witness the huge outpour of love and support for our troops. This is what they should have had when they came home. They all promised they'd be back to help! Thank you Gerry, for spreading the word!

I held back more tears with the troops who just came back: Shawn, Alex, and Jeff. I was thankful for their safe return from Iraq and glad they were home with their families.  I knew their emotions were in high gear ... I want them to know that we are here for them - any time they need us! We understand that it's hard to adjust back to being home and that we have not forgotten about the heroes we lost.

It was truly an awesome event!  Thank you all again for your participation - whether it was your time, your donations or both.  It's all so greatly appreciated!  I hope everyone left feeling good about what we accomplished and feeling as if they are a part of our G2TT family.

        I'd like to add that we are trying to help the Marines with their Toys for Tots Drive.  They're looking for new toys to give to needy children this holiday.  We have collection boxes set up for them at our G2TT center in Rocky Hill and will bring to them on December 9th. They specifically mentioned they're in need for items for needy teenagers as well as the young children.  If you can help - we'd all be very grateful!   

    Oh!  Before I end - I want to share with you an e-mail I received this afternoon from 1LT MacGregor Morgan of the 399th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq.  He wrote:

     "Hi Andi

     I hope you, your loved ones and the entire G2TT staff and supporters had a great Thanksgiving.  I like "G2TT" -  it's kind of catchy. It sounds very military - they like to abbreviate everything here. It's like learning a whole new language, there are so many acronyms it gets hard to keep up after a while... I would like to ask for one thing if it's possible. I would really love to have a blender, I like to make fruit smoothies, If that is possible that would be great. There is very little healthy choice for food here so I'm trying to be creative. Everything is high caloric energy and fattening. Instead of eating a basket of fruits, I could just make a healthy smoothie and have it as a meal...Thanks again for your support..."

     Something tells me 15 blenders will miraculously appear in our center next week! 

THANKS, EVERYONE!

Love,
Andi

I love to read your blogs. Its just incredible what can be accomplished in a short amount of time. God bless you and all the people that pulled together and get the mission accomplished. Lots of love and prayers. Roberta

Hi Andi.
One word: Awesome! Yesterday was my first time packing boxes,and it was so great to see everybody working together so well. It really warmed my heart to do something 'hands on" ... just seeing all the great stuff that the deployees will share, I can't
wait to have my daughter's reaction when she receives a package! She never had one from an organization before! Seeing you from afar: you are a very hard working lady - I applaud you!

Micky (Blue Star Mothers of CT)

Great blog Andi. Sorry I missed being there when the media came. But they really did a great job showing what G2TT can do.

Yesterday was fantastic! Everyone who helped make yesterday possible deserves a huge round of applause. As always a huge round of applause to the troops we all came together for!

The selflessness and generosity of people never ceases to amaze me, and that is what makes me smile each day when I wake up :)

Take a look at the "Letters from our troops" page on the G2TT web site! Looks like you guys got that blender to 1stLY McGregor afterall! Pretty impressive stuff, folks! Expect some $$$ coming from us.