"Angels Work"

Awhile back, "Willie" (Wilhelmine Aufmkolk) of  Soldiers Angels Germany  sent out an email asking for any Soldiers Angels members to send her any stories about their  "Angels work."

It's been awhile since I've done a post about my own "Angels work",so I've been mulling this one around in my head for a bit. I don't have any big flashy stories to share  about fundraising activites or the like.I'm basically just a member who writes letters, and sends cards.I've never even been in a financial position to "adopt" a soldier,and commit to sending care packages and letters on a regular basis.

So I guess if you were to equate me to a military rank, I'd be a "Private"?  But I'm not alone...there are thousands and thousands of others just like me.This is the backbone of what Soldiers Angels is, and why it works. It's the single mom in Michigan, and the retired couple in Arizona, and the family in Texas, and the grandmother in California. Working in their own many different ways with the singular goal of making sure that "No Soldier Goes Unloved."

Soldiers Angels , after all, was STARTED by someone who describes herself as "just an ordinary mother." And while Soldiers Angels has grown far beyond those humble beginnings of Patti Paton-Bader writing letters and enlisting others to join her in writing letters......with astonishing accomplishments in so many projects like   Valour IT  or      First Response Backpacks  or   Blankets of Hope ,to name just a few, there are still thousands of "Privates" out there who quietly write their letters each week for the Letter Writing Team , or send out cards for theCards Plus Team or the Wounded TLC team .

And if you read over the information for each of those teams, I think you'll see that the common denominator stressed is that You Very Seldom Hear Anything Back! from any of these soldiers you are writing letters or sending cards to. I can personally attest to that,lol out of the hundreds and hundreds of letters and cards I've sent in the past year,the replies I've received would equal only a fraction of the total.So you have to be pretty committed to writing to total strangers without any expectation of receiving a response.

And that is why I am so awed and honored,to consider myself numbered among these many "Privates" in Soldiers Angels. OUR "Angels work" is to take that half hour in the evening to write a letter to a soldier we've never met, and most likely never will meet, solely in the hopes that when his or her name is called at 'mail call' and he or she is handed the letter...that they will walk away with a smile, and the feeling that someone somewhere cares about them, is thinking of them, and is grateful for the job that they are doing and their decision to serve our country. 

Or to take that same time the NEXT evening, to write a card to someone who lost a limb when they were wounded,or lost their eyesight,or suffered a brain injury, and let them know that someone is thinking of them, and is mindful of what their service to our country cost them, and will never forget it. It's an astoundingly uplifting and heartwarming feeling, to realize that you are only one of THOUSANDS who are doing the very same thing.

And the really astonishing thing is that it's not even limited to just people here in the United States! I've seen folks on the Soldiers Angels forums  from England,Finland,Germany, New Zealand, and Australia!! And although the Canadian Angels were formed to take care of their own troops in somewhat the same way as Soldiers Angels ,many of the folks participating in that are still ALSO "working angels" at  Soldiers Angels !!

So, after long consideration of Willie's question about "Angels work"? For myself, I believe this expresses what I am trying to do whenever I write someone a letter that tells them about the time I drove into the metal donation thing at the Dairy Queen drive thru window, or got the chips display caught on my jeans while in Subways

"I hope it will give them a smile for a moment, and remind them that someone is thinking of them, and someone cares about them."

And that's what I think my own small part in "Angels work" is.

I'm a "Private". And honored to be one!

"May no soldier go unloved.
May no soldier walk alone.
May no soldier be forgotten,
Until they all come home."

The Motto of Soldiers Angels

 

Tag: soldiers angels