Helpful and Personal Gifts for Hospitalized Soldiers

My friend May Lattanzio is at it again. She found this excellent way to bring some cheer (and help!) to hospitalized soldiers this Thanksgiving. Find the site at www.hhv.org. For a look at the therapeutic kits they send go to: http://www.hhv.org/programs/craftkits.asp

Dear Patriotic Friend,

This Thanksgiving, would you like to say “Thank You” to a hospitalized veteran or sick or wounded overseas GI who’s made a painful sacrifice for your freedom?
If so, please make a tax-deductible Thanksgiving donation to assist Help Hospitalized Veterans (HHV) in its program to provide more therapeutic Craft Kits to our sick or wounded servicemen and women and hospitalized veterans.

When you donate, a Thanksgiving THANK YOU and GET WELL card will also be delivered on your behalf to one of America's estimated 51,000 veterans who will be hospitalized at a VA or military hospital or State Veterans Nursing Home over the Thanksgiving weekend or to one of the many sick or wounded U.S. servicemen or women who were sent to Iraq or Afghanistan to fight the terrorists.

Your greeting card will let a hospitalized hero know you're thankful for the freedoms they've made possible while wearing our nation's uniform.

For over 38 years HHV has been distributing Arts and Crafts Kits free of charge to America’s hospitalized veterans and sick or wounded overseas GIs. HHV delivered 880,000 Gifts to our troops during the Persian Gulf war. And we just presented our 25 millionth Craft Kit to an Army veteran wounded in Iraq.

Many of the hospitalized GIs, like Jantzen Frazier shown above, were wounded while serving our country in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Jantzen received five Purple Heart medals as a result of numerous injuries suffered in Iraq. Even so, he says,

“I have been to Iraq and I have volunteered to go back. I think it is just the right thing to do. I love my country and I would die for it.”

We want to try to make sure we can brighten this year's Thanksgiving holiday weekend for more of our hospitalized heroes like Jantzen Frazier. And that’s why HHV has launched its 2009 Thanksgiving Craft Kit Drive.

With generous donations from patriotic Americans like you, since 1971 HHV has helped provide hundreds of thousands of wounded, sick and disabled hospitalized GIs and military veterans with Arts and Crafts Kits and other gifts that aid their physical, mental and emotional recovery.

These therapeutic Craft Kit gifts help these GIs and veterans keep their minds occupied. They help them develop new skills and overcome the handicap of artificial limbs. And when the kits are completed, these men and women regain a sense of self-confidence.

Faced with physical challenges and long, lonely days in the hospital, these HHV Craft Kits bring pleasure, physical and emotional therapy and purpose into the lives of a great many sick and wounded GIs and veterans.

Many of the young men and women fighting in the war in the Middle East are married with children; others have left sweethearts, parents and friends to serve overseas.

But almost all are lonely and homesick for home, family and friends. That’s why I have to turn to you on behalf of our hospitalized troops and veterans. Being alone with no family or visitors over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend has to be a truly sad and lonely experience.

You and I can enjoy the company of friends and family – carving turkey, playing with our grandchildren and watching football games – because of the sacrifice these men and women made.

But many of our hospitalized heroes won’t experience the same joy that you and I will this Thanksgiving.

And have you noticed that casualties and deaths of our service members in Iraq and Afghanistan that used to be reported on the front page of the newspaper are now shown on the inside pages or not at all? Especially as the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays approach, I don’t want these men and women (or our veterans) feel that they have been forgotten. And I’m sure you don’t either.

That’s why it’s so important to send a special Thanksgiving contribution right now. Your tax-deductible donation to HHV's 2009 Thanksgiving Craft Kit Drive will help us reach our goal of providing a therapeutic HHV Craft Kit to every hospitalized veteran or sick or wounded active-duty GI who wants one.

And your heartfelt THANK YOU and GET WELL card will let a hospitalized GI or veteran know that during the Thanskgiving holiday you'll be thanking them for their sacrifice and remembering them for so bravely defending our freedom.

Please be as generous as you can and consider forwarding a copy of my email to friends so they can also help support our sick and wounded servicemen and women and hospitalized veterans.

Some will want to send a Thanksgiving gift of $24, $40, $56, $80, $120 or even more.

But even if you can only afford to send $8 or $16 it will be a big help in our effort to send Craft Kits to the hospitalized veterans, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who are asking for them during the Thanksgiving and Christmas Seasons and throughout the year.

I hope you and your loved ones have a Happy Thanksgiving. And I’d like to thank you for supporting patriotic causes as we pitch in to care for our hospitalized veterans and sick or wounded overseas GIs.

Serving those who so unselfishly served for us,

Roger Chapin
Founder
Help Hospitalized Veterans

P.S. This Thanksgiving you can thank a hospitalized GI or veteran for your freedom by making a tax-deductible Thanksgiving donation to assist Help Hospitalized Veterans in providing more therapeutic Arts and Crafts Kits to our sick or wounded active-duty troops.

When you donate, a Thanksgiving THANK YOU and GET WELL card will also be delivered to a hospitalized hero on your behalf. Your greeting card can let a lonely, hospitalized veteran or sick or wounded GI know someone still remembers and cares about the sacrifice they've made while wearing our nation's uniform.

Giving America’s hospitalized heroes a gift, as they lie in a VA or military hospital far from home, helps take their minds off their illness or injury and loneliness and concerns about war. But maybe the biggest benefit is that it shows these men and women that Americans are completely united in our support of them.



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Carolyn Howard-Johnson wrote the foreword for Eric Dinyer's book of patriotic quotations, Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel. Part of the proceeds for the book benefit Fisher House. Her chapbook of poetry won the Military Writers Society of America's award of excellence. Find it at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599240173/. Her novel, collection of creative nonfiction and much of her poetry is informed by interest in leading the world toward acceptance of one another. Find her web page dedicated to tolerance at http://www.carolynhowardjohnson.redenginepress.com/tolerence_and_utah_links.htm.