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Happy New Year to you all! We're officially into the fourth year of operation for Cypress Cares. Each year, as we shut the book on the previous year and look forward to the months ahead, we continue to be amazed and grateful for the supporters who are making this organization possible. Though we are obviously very late in getting Volume 5, Issue 1 to you, rest assured, we're already working on the Communique due to you NEXT WEEK! Guess the holidays slowed us down but we're back in the swing of things again.
We have a few things to highlight for the end of 2011:
For the third year in a row, Lieder Elementary School hosted a school-wide donation drive. Every classroom filled and gift wrapped one box and donated them to Cypress Cares. For the past three years, the entire shipment has gone to one point of contact who gets to play Santa Claus for the day. This year, an Army Chaplain got the honor! He was able to provide gifts for Soldiers who needed extra support during the Holiday season.
We have a few new members to Cypress Cares! We welcomed the new Student Representative Team to our organization during the Board of Directors and Advisors meeting on December 15. Join me in welcoming the new team:
- Alexis Starkey/Cy Woods
- Bryce Jordan/Cy Fair
- Emily Brooks/Concordia Lutheran
- Esmeralda Umanzor/Cy Fair
- Hingriz Yanes/Cy Ridge
- Karlie Alms/Cy Woods
- Libby Grumulatis/Cy Fair
- Patrick Sullivan Langham Creek
- Sara Gates/Cy Ranch
- David Carey/Langham Creek
Our final, "official" box packing of 2011 was held on 22 December. The event was held at Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church, and a special "Thank you" to Tisha McLemore for coordinating the event with the church. We had a great turnout - several families from the church and our faithful regulars from Cypress Cares packed 189 boxes to close out the year.
And now, for the final count that you've all been waiting for ...
drumroll...
drumroll...
drumroll...
Cypress Cares shipped 2169 boxes 2011, which surpassed our goal of 2,000 for the year. THANK YOU everyone for your support!
That brings us to a grand total of more than 5,800 boxes shipped to our men and women in uniform! That is an incredible amount of support for our military members down range, and it is all because of your support.
Now, it's time to look ahead to 2012 and see what we're able to accomplish. We're already booking up with events scheduled for the first few months of the year.
One of our biggest fundraiser of each year is the annual Cypress Cares Golf Tournament. We are still looking for volunteers - to help plan the event, work on tournament day, and of course, sponsor and play! If you are interested in helping in any capacity, email Raquel at Raquel@cypress-cares.org. This fundraiser provides us with most of the money that ships our care packages throughout the year.We will continue our attempt to keep you updated as to what we've done, in a timely manner. Please keep in mind, sometimes we forget what all has been done, so please feel free to remind us if we've forgotten something so that we can add it to the next month's newsletter.
Until next, well, next week I guess, thank you for all you do to support our effort and our troops!
Raquel
and the rest of,
The Cypress Cares Team
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Link your Kroger and Randall's Cards! | |
You know those cards you carry for Kroger and Randall's grocery stores? Well if you "link" your card to Cypress Cares, we will benefit by receiving a check from each store to help support our cause.
- Kroger, click here to get the letter which you need to take to the store and have Customer Service link your card to.
- Randall's, just let the Customer Service personnel know you want to link to organization #12476...that's us!
Tell your friends to link their cards as well; it may not amount to much in terms of money, but it means a lot to the service member who gets to smile at mail call! |
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Volunteer Corner | |
We'd like to shine a little spotlight on another volunteer here at Cypress Cares.
For the next couple of months, we are going to introduce you to our new Student Representative Team. These junior and senior high students will be serving as liaisons between Cypress Cares and their respective schools, working to encourage student participation, faculty and staff support, and making sure that everyone knows about what all we are doing to support our troops.
Our first spotlight student is Miss Sara Gates of Cy Ranch HS. She was among the first of the students to step up and ask to participate with our team.
Sara is the Treasurer of the Cy Ranch Key Club and says that she loves volunteering and working with children with disabilities. She is a teacher in the preschool program at Cy Ranch and works with MDA as much as she can. Her goals are to attend Lone Star College (here in Cy Fair) for a year after graduation and then transfer to a larger university after that, majoring in Education. She also wants to earn a minor in Non-Profit Management. Her goal is to eventually teach 1st or 2nd grade and also work with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and hopefully continue volunteering with Cypress Cares (we'd love to have her!!).
She joined the ranks of the Student Rep Team because she would like to do more to support our military.
Sara, thank you for stepping up to represent CRHS, we are honored to have you helping us out! |
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Salute to Our Heroes |
 For the fourth consecutive year, the Cy Fair Educational Foundation will be holding Salute to Our Heroes. This program honors the brave men and women who have served to preserve our freedom. Proceeds from the event will go towards an endowment, enabling graduating students from Cy Fair ISD to attend college. Raquel has been honored to play a small role in the planning of this event, from its first year, and several of our Board of Directors and Advisors attends the event each year. If you would like to attend, ticket and sponsorship information is available at www.thecfef.org. This event does not sell tickets at the door, so if you think you'd like to attend, please purchase your tickets now. . |
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3rd Annual
Cypress Cares Golf Tournament | |
The third annual Cypress Cares Golf Tournament is now scheduled!!
This is our primary fund raising event of the year, and we count on its success to get us through an entire 12 months of shipping expenses. We need the support of everyone involved in this organization to make the event a success and help us meet our goals.
The tournament will be held of Friday, April 27 at Gleannloch Pines Golf Club in Spring, Texas. Cost to play is $150/person, $600/team. Sponsorships range from $200 hole/tee sponsors, up to $10,000 Red, White and Blue Tournament sponsors, and everything in between.
Registration should be available on our website by mid-February, but until then, if you are interested in participating, please let us know. We are in the process of building our event planning committee and compiling our email list for those interested in playing or sponsoring the tournament. Contact Raquel if you are interested in playing or contact Bill Keller if you would like to become a sponsor. |
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Troop Spotlight | |
WE NEED A FEW NEW SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR SPOTLIGHT! | |
We have a new Spotlight Soldier! Visit our homepage to read about Michael Barham, US Army National Guard, Oklahoma.
Consider submitting a service member whom you know for this feature. We continue to try and feature someone new each month, as long as submissions are sent in. Absolutely any service member may be featured here, deployed or not!
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Save the date: Upcoming events | |
MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
February 25, 2012, 2:00pm
Box Packing Event
Church of the Good Shepherd
Tomball, TX
Thanks to the support of Heather Faircloth, Ann Broadfoot and Fr. Daniel Dunlap, the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepher will be hosting their third Cypress Cares box packing event in February! This church as provided wonderful support of our operation and we are excited to be headed back. We will need all kinds of goods for our packages but are focused primarily on snack foods and over the counter medications. Please, no full-sized bottles of body wash, shampoo or conditioner this time around.
For more events, visit our Upcoming Events page on the web! |
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James Bordelon
1LT, IN
3rd Platoon Leader
Task Force Titans the reason we serve
...feedback from the battlefield | |
Feedback from the Frontlines,
Dear Cypress Cares,
On behalf of the soldiers of 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 2-8 Infantry (from the 4th Infantry Division), I would like to send a heartfelt "Thank You" for the wonderful Christmas packages we have received. We've assembled the Christmas trees, and they add a nice Christmas feel to Combat Outpost Nolen, located in the Arghandab River Valley of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.
1LT James B.
3rd Platoon Leader
Task Force Titans
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Dear Cypress Cares Team,
I just wanted to email and thank you for all the packages I have been receiving for several months of my deployment. Its always a really good feeling when you get packages from people who care about you while you're over seas. My deployment is coming to an end in February so my name can be taken off the mailing list. I'm sincerely grateful for all the volunteers and workers of cypress cares that made my deployment better.
SPC Jason C.
US Army
*******
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Warrior Dash is Coming |
In March of 2011, Raquel ran the Warrior Dash in Conroe, TX. For 2012, we want to see a Team Cypress Cares run of the Warrior Dash in Splendora, TX. It will be 3.21 miles with 12 obstacles along the way such as a cargo net climb, mud pit and more. Really, it's nothing you can't do (even if you are not a runner), and you'll feel great about finishing.
The event will be held on March 17 and our team will run at 10:00. Please consider registering to join in the fun! It will be a great time for all.
And if you can't run the event, but wish to volunteer instead, that's possible too. For each group of 25 volunteers that CC sends to work, the Warrior Dash folks will make a cash donation to our effort. Click here for more details for the day.
Sign up SOON as the spots will fill quickly. Make sure you choose the 10:00AM slot, too! |
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