Supporting the Troops: If Cake Is Your Thing ...

My older daughter just handed me a page from the July 2008 magazine Entrepreneur. The one-page article by Nicole L. Torres was headlined:"Earn Your Stripes: Feeling patriotic this Fourth of July? Follow the lead of these four entrepreneurs who've built businesses that help soldiers overseas and let the troops know how much they're appreciated."

The first company Treats for Troops was founded by Deborah Crane in 2003 and sends care packages to soldiers.

The second is TakePride founded by Patrick Gray and John Betz in 2006 with T-shirts "to provide an apolitical way for people to stylishly show support for the troops."

The third is project Operation: Birthday Cake from Bake Me A Wish! founded by Josh Kaye in 2004. This project enables customers to order cakes to be delivered to soldiers on their birthdays. Plus the company works with the Armed Forces Foundation and Soldiers' Angels "to donate birthday cakes to service members overseas."

I'm planning to contact all of these featured entrepreneurs to ask if they'd like to be guests on the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com that I co-host with Nancy Brown.

Also check out the site of this supporting-the-troops project -- Operation Troop Aid -- that I just learned about on Twitter. The organization's founder, Mark Woods, is scheduled to be interviewed on our BlogTalkRadio show at the end of April. (Yes, we're booking that far ahead for our twice-weekly show.)

Here are Mark's own words about his project:

My dream is to turn OTA into the "Premier Care Package Provider" to deployed US Troops, by using major concert promotions and branch OTA out all over the country. I have worked tirelessly and assembled all the right players and now I just need corporate sponsors. Please help as we reach out to the deployed U.S. Troops, they need us NOW!! The mission of OTA is to make a positive difference and inspire deployed U.S. service members by letting them know America stands with them. OTA provides care packages with revenue generated through professional concert promotions and through public financial generosity.

Check out all these sites now.