Hello Cypress Cares faithful!

Well, it's been quite a month! Between a week-long vacation for our Director, Raquel and then nearly a week of her computer/Internet in the office being down, we were severely out of touch for a while.  We sure hope that we've gotten caught up on things, but if not, please be sure to let us know! 

The kiddos around here might have still been out on summer break, but Cypress Cares didn't take a break this last month. We've had a lot of things going on and more in the works for later this year.  Read on to learn more!

• Saturday August 6 was a box packing at Foundry United Methodist Church in Houston. The 200+ boxes were filled with goods that had been gathered by congregation members at Foundry as part of their 'brown bag drive' in July and they have already been met with lots of grateful smiles and thanks from troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Says COL Tom Lewis of Spring, TX, (pictured right with others from COS Hammer in Iraq) from his post in Iraq, "Goodie boxes and Soldiers/Airmen go together like peas in a pod".  Or was that Forrest Gump? The banner was provided by Ink Dots Printing Solutions and signed by the congregation of Prince of Peace Catholic Community during this year's Lenten Season.
• Our next large scale event(s) won't be held until Saturday, October 1 and Saturday, October 8 at Cypress TaeKwon-Do and Church of the Good Shepherd, respectively. Both events are Halloween Treats for Troops packings. Yes, chocolate will melt between here and there, but remember, M&Ms will NOT! And there are literally hundreds of other candies that we can ship. Never forget gum and mints, and alternative 'treats' like granola bars, Slim Jim jerky sticks, dried fruits, Cracker Jacks, etc.. And as we are sending lots and lots of sweets in October, we're thinking "dental care" as well. We'd love to include a few toothbrushes, toothpaste and flossers with each box, just to help out! A few "regular" care packages will be shipped at each event as well, but our focus is Halloween.
• We're excited to have another small packing event coming up in September. The employees of Caldwell Companies are gathering items and will fill their packages later this month. They are having a 'friendly competition' in their departments to raise funds and purchase items and a few of us will be on hand to help them pack their boxes and ship them to troops on our mailing list. If your place of business would like to hold a similar event, please let us know. Someone will be happy to come out, talk to the staff and help set something up.
• Our thanks, again, to the staff and customers/patients of the Longenbaugh Veterinary Clinic! They have been making regular contributions to our effort for over a year now, with goodies just showing up on our doorstep all the time. Last month, 48 more boxes of Girl Scout cookies appeared, along with some other items. Mrs Tommie McClain does the leg work for the clinic, dropping those items off to us periodically. Dr Martin Keadle, his staff, and of course their clients are all to thank for spreading the word and supporting our troops!
• On Sunday, August 14, Copperfield Bowl hosted their annual Mid-Summer No Tap bowling tournament and Cypress Cares was the beneficiary of the proceeds from that event. Our thanks to Mr. Mike Nelson and his staff for again thinking of Cypress Cares, and making a contribution of $500 to our effort. CC volunteers Raquel and Larry Cunningham, Alicia and Greg Powell, Donna and Dean McCarty, Steve Squyres and Kathi Nunez all showed up and participated in the event, and had a great time doing so. We were certainly not in the running to win, just there to have some fun. We're even thinking of having a Cypress Cares Fun Night at Copperfield Bowl just to get together and enjoy some time out. Are you game?

A Walk for Remembrance will be held on Sunday, September 11 at 7:30 in the morning in the Cole's Crossing subdivision. We invite those who support our efforts and the efforts of hundreds of other organizations around the country, to take a moment to reflect upon the tragedy of 9/11 and all that has occurred since. If you are able to join us in Cypress, we welcome you to do so. For those who live far from here, we encourage you to organize your own tribute for that morning to help us show the world that WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN!   See EDITORIAL below from TRWB's Gary Bartels for his thoughts as well.

The Cypress Cares Team