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The American spirit wears no political label. In service to others and yes, in sacrifice for our country, there are no Republicans; there are no Democrats; there are only Americans. ~ John Kerry
I came across this quote today and thought it was so appropriate to our organization. Even our website says that it doesn't matter how you feel about our currently politial leadership, our troops still need and deserve our support. Left/right doesn't matter, only Americans matter to Cypress Cares!
We've had a busy start to the year already!
I wanted to bring up a great addition to our December total - the Teen Leadership Classes at Cy Woods High School held a donation drive in December and filled 58 boxes which were shipped to troops on our mailing list, just after New Year's. Just needed to make sure that we recognized them, since I forgot that in January's newsletter.
Cy Ranch High School Key Club held a donation drive headed by Mrs. Jennifer Hydes and filled 50 packages which were all sent to an Army medevac unit in Afghanistan. Navy mom Mrs. Grosspkof's son contacted us to tell us about a friend's unit in need of a morale boost. Cy Ranch students were very excited to know that they were going to make a difference to the Soldiers in this particular unit. They even contributed the funds needed to pay for the shipment of those packages! Way to go Wildcat's Key Club
Between the two schools and an extra box sitting in my living room, we had a grand total of 109 packages shipped to troops in January! We'll make an attempt to let you know month-to-month how many packages me mailed. This way, we'll always know where we stand in relation to our goal for the year.
Brownie Troop 25237 from West University Elementary School in Houston had a fun time last month filling a few packages for our men and women. Led by Mrs. Christi Janczak, the troop filled up 6 boxes which we will mail with February's packages. (these boxes will be accounted for in March's newsletter containing February's totals.)
We have our golf tournament coming up soon, and we are gearing up by signing golfers up to play. We've got a few golfers signed up to play in the April tournament, but we are in need of sponsorships. Any and all businesses and individuals that wish to help us out by sponsoring a tee or a hole, lunches, drink carts, hats, shirts, driving range, veteran players, or underwriting the event are encouraged to contact Paul Marshall at pmarshall2@comcast.net. The next planning meeting for the tournament will be Tuesday, Feb 7 at 6:30pm at Saint Aidan's Episcopal Church on Fry Rd.
We can use all the help we can get to make the golf tournament a success! Please feel free to come join us, even if it's just to pick up flyers so that you can distribute to potential players and sponsors. We truly appreciate your support in this event. This event pays for the majority of shipments to our troops. This event is always an enjoyable time!
Finally, we made the announcement of our essay contest winners. The Editorial piece at the end of this newsletter is the winning entry in the 3-5 Grade category. Nicholas is a 5th grade student at Black Elementary School in Cy Fair ISD and the son of a US Marine Corps Veteran. Congratulations Nicholas!
Until next time, which will hopefully be in EARLY March, thank you all for your continued support!
Raquel
and the rest of,
The Cypress Cares Team
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Golfers and Sponsors
Needed | |
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 is simple, just contact us and we'll get your team on the list to play. Sponsorship is the same; check out our website and see how you can support the effort, let us know what interests you and we will be happy to talk with you about the benefits of sponsorship.
Contact Raquel if you are interested in playing or contact Bill Keller if you would like to become a sponsor. |
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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.
For February, we are spotlighting Miss Elizabeth "Libby" Grumulaitis of Cy Fair High School. Libby is a Sophomore at Cy Fair and her activities include golf and theatre. She hopes to make an impact on the world and to one day live in Europe.
Libby chose to get involved with Cypress Cares because she has friends currently serving in Afghanistan and wanted to do something to would impact the troops overseas, and make sure they know how much they are appreciated during their time away.
Thank you Libby for joining our team! |
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Troop Spotlight | |
WE NEED A FEW NEW SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR SPOTLIGHT! | |
We continue to shine our Spotlight on Michael Barham, US Army National Guard, Oklahoma. We're also thrilled to say that he will soon be HOME with his loving family!
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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the reason we serve
...feedback from the battlefield
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Dear Cypress Cares
I'd like to take a moment to express my sincerest gratitude for the thoughts, prayers and of course, gifts you've graciously sent our way. It is such a joy to receive care packages from our fellow Americans who support us in our relentless efforts at keeping our country safe and sound.
The holidays can be an exceptionally difficult time for many of us as we spend the festive season alone in a country far from home and loved ones, but somehow the gifts we receive come just in the nick of time to boost our spirits! It's very exciting to open the boxes and see the creativity in the various treats and goodies you've chosen to include. We deliberately avoid reading the customs label just so that we can take delight in being surprised!
It's such a comfort to know that although we may be alone, we are certainly not forgotten, and we are reminded of that very fact with each card, letter and package we receive. So thank you, thank you, thank you!
Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are returned to you and your family.
SSG C. Davie, US Army
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Warrior Dash is Coming |
Several Cypress Cares team members will be running the 3.2 mile Warrior Dash in Splendora on March 17, along with a contingent of supporters from Team Red, White & Blue, all in an effort to raise funds and awareness for our two organizations which benefit deployed troops and wounded warriors respectively.
If you are interested in sponsoring Raquel, Toby, Brandy, Dona and Kim in this run, click here. Our goal is to raise $2,000 through our run.
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What Freedom Means to Me
by Nicholas Izaguirre,
5th grade, Black Elementary School
Freedom, a powerful word to many people, but to me it means something special, something amazing, and something spectacular. When you live in America, it means you can talk about whatever you want and not be ruled by an emperor or king. It means you can pick any religion you want. Freedom means that your parents can pick any name for you. It also means you can wear any kind of clothes you want. For many people, the Declaration of Independence created all the basic freedoms in America. A famous line in it says, "...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."
To a kid, this means a lot. Life means that we are free to live and stay in America. Liberty means we can be free from any other country. The pursuit of happiness means a lot, for example, if a boy goes up to a girl and he insults her, then the girl will feel bad. That is not the pursuit of happiness. Pursuit of happiness is when a boy goes up to a girl and says a compliment and the boy and girl walk away happy; that is the pursuit of happiness for the boy and girl. I think the pursuit of happiness has a lot do with a kid's life. If you think about it, without those men that signed the Declaration of Independence, we would not have this great and free nation to pursue our happiness. |
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