With my heartfelt gratitude to our Veterans

Homeless Army Veteran Receives Incredible Makeover In This Heartwarming Time-Lapse. 25-year-old Rob Bliss recently teamed up with Dégagé Ministries in Grand Rapids, Michigan to give homeless United States Army veteran Jim Wolf a makeover. After seeing his new look, Jim said 'Wow' and gave Bliss a giant hug. Since the transformation, Wolf is scheduled to move into his own apartment and has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.



Here are a few ways you can share books with soldiers and veterans:

1. Register with Books for Soldiers. Once you are registered, you will be able to view the requests and send troops books, DVDs, games and relief supplies. You will also have access to their Pen Pal area and Post Card Jamboree.

"On average our volunteers fill thousands of requests a month. Get started today and get your company, civic group or place of worship involved with supporting our troops."

2. Check out Books for Troops. BOOKS FOR TROOPS (BFT) was started in southern Saratoga County, New York, April 2010 by retired school teacher, Ellen Keegan who wanted to gather books to send to our troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, in order to give them a source of escape from the horrors they see each day, to offer release from loneliness, boredom, stress, homesickness, and fear, and to show them that they were not forgotten by those at home that they were sacrificing so much to keep free. Books for Troops also wanted the books to remind them of home and to give them the message of how grateful and proud we were of them. Their mission was expanded over the 3+ years in existence to include 18 VA hospitals across the US, the American Red Cross Wounded Warriors program, and the families of the troops, in particular the children.

3. Operation Paperback "Giving our troops the opportunity to escape into a good book since 1999." There are two ways that you can help Operation Paperback - make a monetary donation or send books directly to troops, veterans and families. By making a monetary donation you will help fund the purchase and shipment of high-demand genres and other special request books. As a volunteer shipper, you will collect and ship your own books using the addresses that they provide.

4. E-Books for Troops provides soldiers with gently used and new Kindles. Something to keep in mind if you get a new one for Christmas.

Last year slightly more than half of the Kindles that we shipped were used Kindles donated by supporters of E-Books for Troops through our Kindles for Troops (K4T) program. The rest were new Kindles that we bought from Amazon using funds donated to E-Books for Troops. We also use donated money to purchase USB cables and power plugs as needed, as well as a $10 gift card for each Kindle. Our fantastic partner M-Edge Accessories donates a brand new protective case and e-Luminator Touch BookLight for each Kindle that we ship, new or used.

5. Contact your local VA Medical Center to see if book donations are being accepted for distribution to the Veterans.

6. Take your books to your nearest Vietnam Veterans of America office.

Here is a nice list of other Charities supporting Soldiers and their families.


Talk to you soon,
Angela