Easy Way to Support Our Troops: Introduce Trish, Nancy and Me to a Company Interested in a Social Media Promotion

I’m taking my own advice and networking through this blog to find a possible connection for a fundraising project that I want to do to help www.emailourmilitary.com.

Here’s the story: Trish Forant of eMailOurMilitary and Nancy Sutherland, sales director of May Kay, and I conducted a successful fundraising campaign for Operation Soldier Care (see http://snipurl.com/oscsuccess) using primarily social media such as Twitter and Facebook and our own blogs.

Now eMailOurMilitary is getting ready for its holiday project for deployed troops. How to help raise funds for this project?

Why not have Trish, Nancy and me recreate our successful Operation Soldier Care social media fundraising campaign for a company that wants a promotion to help expand awareness of its products or brand? In fact, I’ve just written a proposal as to how this would work for a cable tv network. But the overall promotion plan could work for any type of company.

If you’re reading this blog post, I’d appreciate it if you would put on your thinking cap. Let me know if you can make an introduction for us to someone at a company who might be interested in this proposal. For example, it could be a military-related insurance company such as USAA or a new magazine or new website that wants exposure in social media and on blogs.

And if your introduction is the one that succeeds in getting a promotion partner for us, I’ll be happy to send you an autographed copy of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL.

Helping to find a company interested in this fundraising project is an easy way to support our troops. (And, of course, we’ll thank you in all our blogs.)

You can email me through my website www.mrslieutenant.com.

Technorati Tags:
Mrs. Lieutenant, www.emailourmilitary.com, Nancy Sutherland, Trish Forant, Mary Kay, Twitter, Facebook, USAA, www.mrslieutenant.com

Operation Soldier Care Successful: $6822 of Mary Kay Sun/Skin Care Products En Route to Iraqi Desert

Operation Soldier Care ended at midnight Pacific time on August 18^th with $3411 in donated funds. And thanks to the generous matching funds of Nancy Sutherland, sales director of Mary Kay (www.directsalesmarketingqueen.com), the total of sun and skin care products is $6822.

Nancy also handled the packaging and shipping of eight large boxes. And these sun/skin care products are now en route to our men and women deployed in Iraq with its brutal desert climate.

To learn who were the top five donors and thus the recipients of all the terrific gifts provided to encourage large donations, see the www.emailourmilitary.com post by Trish Forant at http://tinyurl.com/6qltdn. (Trish’s blog link is on the Mrs. Lieutenant military blog roll.)

Technorati Tags:
Mrs. Lieutenant, Operation Soldier Care, Trish Forant, Nancy Sutherland, Mary Kay, www.emailourmilitary.com, www.directsalesmarketingqueen.com, Iraq War

National Guard Member in Iraq Reports the Convoy Made It Through Safely

I'm back a little earlier than I thought. Everything is fine.

This is the email I received Saturday evening Pacific time from the National Guard member whom I wrote about in my post on Friday – http://tinyurl.com/6otpao.

I immediately responded that I was glad to hear from him. Then, because a few days ago he had mentioned concerns he had about this mission, I asked him for more details. This is his response:

Boring day which is the way I like it. We are going out for most of the week, but odds are I will not be doing this. HQ just provides fills when the line units need a body. So I'll be in the TOC [Tactical Operation Center] on the radio or watching a movie.

I want to be out with my guys, and that can happen on some missions, but it’s just not my job. I'm supposed to make sure my guys run the TOC and my mechanics are fixing vehicles. I can go out, but from now on, it will be as a Joe, not as a leader.

Now Operation Soldier Care only has one more day to go – tomorrow, August 18^th. And I want those of you reading this blog to think about “the guys” of this National Guard platoon sergeant who are struggling through the desert in convoy formation. (FYI – The “guy” on the gun on Vic 6 – vehicle 6 – of the eight-truck convoy was a woman.)

Thanks to Trish Forant of www.emailourmilitary.com and Nancy Sutherland, sales director of Mary Kay who is matching up to $5,000 of donations, in a few days sun/skin care products will be on the way to help our troops in the Iraqi desert.

And Trish just won the Blog of the Day Award! See http://tinyurl.com/6mden8 to read about this terrific honor – then click through to read her most recent blog post on Operation Soldier Care.

And while you’re cruising the internet sitting in comfort, click on the link from Trish’s blog to the Mary Kay skin/sun care product page and send a little comfort to our troops in the blazing Iraqi desert. Or click from here directly to the Mary Kay product page – http://tinyurl.com/5dmwq4. Consider buying multiple packages – the top five donors will receive an incredible array of donated prizes.

If it were your loved one serving in harm’s way under these difficult conditions, you’d want the American public to show appreciation.

Now’s your chance to show appreciation to the loved ones of other Americans. Do this now before the clock ends on August 18^th.

Technorati Tags:
Trish Forant, www.emailourmilitary.com, Nancy Sutherland, Mary Kay, Mrs. Lieutenant, Iraq War, Operation Soldier Care, National Guard

A Convoy Coming Up Tomorrow: Donate to Operation Soldier Care

As I got ready to write this blog about Operation Soldier Care, I received an email from a deployed National Guard member. In order to protect his platoon he hasn’t told me his name or his location. Here’s what he wrote:

I have a convoy coming up tomorrow. Prep starts today. If I don't respond to your emails, that is why.

So I hope you understand that, when I write about deployed soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’m not writing about some imaginary people that I don’t know. I’m writing about this platoon sergeant and the men and women under him as well as all the other platoon sergeants and their platoon members.

And that’s why I’m urging you to donate to Operation Soldier Care – a project to send sun/skin care products to the blazing Iraqi desert. The project is sponsored by Trish Forant of www.emailourmilitary.com and Nancy Sutherland, sales director of Mary Kay, who is matching all donations up to $5,000.

In order to encourage people to donate more than a minimum amount, donations have also been sought as prizes for the top five donors. And terrific prizes have been donated. Yesterday Nancy emailed me about a new incredible donation:

I have another HUGE CONTRIBUTOR! Zna Trainer (www.znatrainer.com) is giving away $15,000 worth of personal training! She is giving $950 personal training for each of the top 5 contributors PLUS 5 for lucky soldiers and their spouses! A total of 15 personal training packages!

If Zna Trainer can step up to the plate, you can too.

To read about Operation Soldier Care and all the prizes for the top five donors, go to Trish Forant’s blog entry “Giving Back to Those Who Give So Much” at http://tinyurl.com/67srcm. The deadline is August 18^th.

Think of that platoon sergeant’s convoy coming up tomorrow through the blazing Iraqi desert. What must it feel like to be out in those incredibly high temperatures (wearing full body armor) and with blowing desert sand stinging your faces?

Please donate to Operation Soldier Care to help give a little comfort to these men and women fighting in our names.

Technorati Tags:
Operation Soldier Care, Iraq War, Trish Forant, www.emailourmilitary.com, Nancy Sutherland, Mary Kay, www.znatrainer.com, Mrs. Lieutenant

Operation Soldier Care and Supporting Our Troops

I emailed a deployed National Guard member about Operation Soldier Care – a project to support the troops sponsored by www.eMailOurMilitary.com and Nancy Sutherland, sales director of May Kay. (Read about the project and the prizes for the top five donors at http://tinyurl.com/55vlqe.)

I had hoped that the National Guard member would forward the announcement to people he knows. Instead I got him in a mood that, as he said later, was caused by a bad case of timing. He was annoyed at Fox News coverage of Lizzie Palmer, a 16-year-old girl who made a tribute to the troops video entitled “Remember Me.”

The National Guard member said that everyone wants to support the troops as long as it doesn’t involve becoming one of the troops.

My reaction when I watched the video was that it’s definitely moving, but there’s no specific call to action – only the general theme of supporting the troops. Such a video would have been much more effective if it had included URLs of organizations that support the troops and specific actions we could take to do this.

Which is all the more reason for people to support Operation Soldier Care – a project with a specific call to action.

Read Trish Forant’s blog post at http://tinyurl.com/55vlqe and then take action to support the troops.

Technorati Tags:
National Guard, Operation Soldier Care, www.eMailOurMilitary.com, Nancy Sutherland, Mary Kay, Trish Forant

Do Our Troops Need Cosmetics? A Unique Way to Show Our Gratitude

I asked Nancy Sutherland, sales director of Mary Kay, to write a guest post describing an important project that she is promoting. (She has her own blog at http://nancymkqueen.wordpress.com.)

Imagine it's hot, sandy with a nice breeze but you're not at the beach AND you are wearing up to 100 pounds of gear! You're an American soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan! Today is pretty much like yesterday except you are one day closer to coming home to your family.

It's the end of the day and your most anticipated activity is a nice shower and mail call. Your hands are weather-beaten, dry and chapped. Yet there’s hope for your hands thanks to Operation Soldier Care.

Our troops frequently get care packages for birthdays and holidays, but what about “just because” we appreciate them now?

What is Operation Soldier Care? How did it come about?

I’ll start by giving you an inside look of who these soldiers are who will be the recipients of this campaign and why you want to be part of it.

The U.S. has a total volunteer military so everyone who is serving our country willingly signed up to do so. Some of them are true patriots that come from a family with generations of military service going all the way back to the Revolutionary War.

Many of them are young men and women who come from a large family, small town, low income or other backgrounds that would not offer college as an option. (Enlisting for three to four years can give soldiers a chance for a better life afterwards with a college education.) There are also doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants and many other professionals who are reservists called up for active duty.

My husband Alex retired from the army in 2003 as a major. That has given me an inside look as to what it is like to serve overseas. Alex celebrated his 40^th birthday unceremoniously in Bosnia. I put together a care package for him that I had worked on for a month, selecting just the right things that he might enjoy. And as a Mary Kay sales director, I also assemble gifts for many of my clients to send to their loved ones overseas.

At first I thought that providing sunscreens for the troops would be my best option. But as I got creative in adding other personal care items such as body lotions, shower gels, hand creams, shaving cream and other hydrating skin products, the response was overwhelmingly positive.

Here is one of my responses:

“Great idea! Having been a U.S. Army soldier in Kuwait and in Iraq, personal hygiene items and toiletries are such a luxury. To receive a Mary Kay care package would have been a DREAM for me! I highly recommend this because it is really something useful and much appreciated – even for male soldiers – a HUGE morale booster. When I sent my husband who was deployed in the Middle East special items for his skin, he was in heaven and so so happy!!”

So Operation Soldier Care was created. I teamed up with eMail Our Military (www.emailourmilitary.com) for this project because eMOM already had the systems in place to promote this and distribute the gifts. I am matching each donation 100% so your generosity will be maximized!

To learn how you can participate in this project, go to http://tinyurl.com/57qyjx. Or order directly at www.marykay.com/nancysutherland.