Operation Santa Bag

Welcome to our blog!

"Operation Santa Bag" is designed to spread cheer to our troops deployed overseas during the Holidays. My sister Cathy and I decided to start this project when my son was deployed to Iraq in 2007, we want our troops to know that they are not forgotten! We love our soldiers! Last year we celebrated our fourth year adopting a group, the past two years we have adopted a group from Camp Lejeune North Carolina....The care package this past year exceeded all other years! We had so many people wanting to donate not only with items to send but helped with shipping expenses, phone cards and so much more! The response from the group we adopted was awesome! They truly appreciated what we offered.

Our goal for this blog is to encouage people to continue showing support for our troops no matter where they are, and should your neighbor be part of a military family let them know how much you appreciate them for their committent to keeping us safe and for giving us the freedom we take for granted everyday!

It's getting close to the time when we start preparing for this years project, who will we adopt? We don't know yet, but this does not matter we will begin making homemade Christmas cards in June, Cathy & I will be talking nearly everyday until we meet in NY over Thanksgiving. This has become our tradition! we work deligently for about 5 months to prepare our packages! I will drive to NY and Operation Santa Bag will take over her house for almost a week! We have so much fun doing this! We celebrate Thanksgiving every year by being so Thankful for our wonderful HEROE'S

If you would like to help this year please contact us we Welcome the help!

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Operation Santa Bag's have been shipped!

Dear Operation Santa Bag Supporter's and Follower's.

Monday November 25th, Operation Santa Bag shipped 14 boxes of goodies to include
Christmas Tree's for each of the groups.  I have to say a hardy "Thank You" to all that made this possible.  The weight this year exceeded last year, even with having less in numbers.  The total weight combined was over 256lbs.  That's a whole lot of Christmas love to ship!  I would love to be a little fly on the wall when these troops start receiving the care packages.  A Hardy! Hardy ! Thank You to my husband Mike, he did all the heavy lifting getting it from our house to the post office.  I'm not sure if the post office will ever be the same after tying up the post office line for well over an hour. But at the end of the day! It was so well worth it! 

Words cannot express the warmth in my heart with the support this project has received over the years. And to our troops we can never repay them for what they have given up!  Being away from family during the holiday's is tough, so my goal is to give them a little bag of cheer!

From Operation Santa Bag we wish you and your families a Happy Thanksgiving! and A very Blessed Christmas.  You  have truly shown what Thanksgiving & Christmas is all about! "Giving, Loving, and Caring all wrapped up in 14 boxes that is heading to Afghanistan and Kosovo!

Love to You All

Operation Santa Bag
Pat






Saturday, November 9, 2013

November 9, 2013

Well Operation Santa Bag followers, here's another update.  Team Operation Santa Bag meets again today to finish the Christmas Cards that we have left to do,  Every year "God" really Blesses this project.  Just when I think I'm not going to have all the help I need, "He" sends them my way. I don't even need to look, they find me. All I can say is "WOW!"

To update everyone on things that we are still needing $ for shipping, I am still waiting on a couple of donations to come in. Once I receive those funds I will have a better idea on how much more we will need.  I would love to get some notes from children or adults , these little things mean a whole lot to our troops just to let them know that the children even as young as they are understand their sacrifices and love them for it.

One of my very dedicated helpers said something yesterday that put things in perspective and here's my thought she said, "Isn't it great what we can check off another item off of our  "things needed/things to get list" instead of thinking about all  that we have left to do.  So just to give you an idea of what we have accomplished to date, I am checking these things off.  Ms. Bunny, I love you more than you know.

Things completed to date:
All Santa Bags are sewn  (85)                                      
Toiletries received/separated & bagged 
We will have (85) Home Made Christmas Cards  Completed today                                          
             Received:                                                       
Powdered drink mix                                    Hard Candies w/ more to come
Hot Chocolate                                             Our State Magazine 
Slim Jims                                                    $ 100.00 for Shipping (so far)                              
Peanuts                                                        Party Mix (2) containers 1 for each group
Hat's Hand Knitted                                      (2) Prelite Christmas trees       
Hand Warmers w/ more to come                Hand made Christmas Ornaments
Playing Cards (coming)                             
Fruit roll up's
Raisins
Tooth Paste, Tooth Brushes/Dental Floss




Sunday, September 22, 2013

Operation Santa Bags is in full swing!
 I went to "Any Soldier.com and selected a couple of groups this year.  Typically they only have a handful of troops to help out, but I'm sure there's more to that than we think. these individuals are base out of NC, so more than likely, Camp Lejune, New River Air Station, Cherry Point, Ft. Bragg; that tells me that these brave soldier's are from our community.   So I am reaching out to those individuals to see what we can do to send them a little package of LOVE.  We have a sweet individual that donated fabric for the Santa Bags, yes, we sew these our selves. Thank you Ms. Sharon! and one of our loyal supporters has hand knitted hats to go under their helmets (We thank you Ms. Cecelia).  We are very blessed to have this kind of support.  Our local dentist has donated toothpaste, tooth brushes, and dental floss.  Thank You to Dr.& Mrs Michael Levine.

We need your HELP!

Your asking how, this is what you or your group can do to help!

We need funds for shipping.  Last year we spent over $ 350.00 on shipping.  We reached out to 135 troops, That was awesome!  The joy of knowing they all appreciate all that we offered!

We need these thing for this years project!

We just received a special request for warm gloves, one of our contacts say they are really needing these because where they are is getting extremely cold.  If you can help with this they would really appreciate it more than you know. We are needing approximately 75 pairs, and if we can get 10-15 folks that will commit to purchasing these we would have enough for everyone.

Hot Chocolate (lots of it)
Individual packets of Gatorade (lots of it)
Hand Warmers enough for 2-3 sets in each Santa bag
Candies such as: skittles, jolly ranchers, tootsie rolls, fire balls, peanuts, starlight peppermints, beef jerky or slim jims are a big hit!. etc
Candy Canes
toiletries such as shampoo, lotion, sanitizers, body wash, conditioners. sun screen, chap sticks, baby wipes, individual packs of tissues
games, footballs, playing cards
letter from school children thanking them for their service.
Christmas Trees preferably 4ft or under, and I say trees because there will be more than 1 group to reach out too this year.
Sports magazines, health magazines or just some good reading material.