By Heather O.
This looks like a fun way to get involved in helping kids in Afghanistan. Some pilots are asking for donations of soccer balls that they can distribute from their helicopters to local children, which will hopefully improve relations between them and the locals. The link should take you to their blog, where you can get details about what kind of balls you can send, the address you can send them to, etc, etc. This operation will be in effect until December 2007, so y’all have plenty of time to get everything ready. J and I just sent off a box of stuffed animals to Iraq (hat tip to TftcCarrie), and it was a good experience for us both. This is a great opportunity to do something simple that could be helpful both to our troops as well as some kids who like to play soccer.
Happy packing!
This is my brother–in-law who came up with this program. He’s gotten wonderful response so far. One family talked to a neighbor who is a coach at a nearby university and so even a bunch of athletic programs have gotten involved. Even with huge donations, they still run out of balls. Kids over there have so little. I picked up five $6 at Waldemort (they were already deflated) stuck them in a priority mail box and then filled the extra spaces with Red Vines and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Now my kids want to check the website every day to see if our box arrived and to look for pictures of our drop.
Comment #1 by LieslMay 17th, 2007 at 8:52 amWe did a similar program for our Primary activity day. I think we had 8 boxes of toys to donate. But, the shipping address on the website was wrong, so after $200 shipping costs, and 8 returned boxes, we decided to donate the toys locally.
Comment #2 by JessawhyMay 18th, 2007 at 11:06 pmI hope it works out better for you guys than it did for us.