Welcome to the forum all newbies

Hi! I'm still trying to get the hang of this forum, it might take me awhile.   I'm not completely new to this forum (I was a forum lurker before, but just now decided to join and actually post)

Let's see, a little bit about myself: I was born and raised in California (as you can see), but currently in Seattle,WA for college.  Um, well, I actually found this site my senior year in high school when we had to write a letter to a servicemember as part of a Civics assignment.  I just recently "rediscovered" the site, and can't stay off it! I'm so proud of the men and women that are risking their lives over there, and love that there's a website completely dedicated to supporting them, go Marty!!

Hello hello .. I am just a CA girl .. I've heard about this site from my fellow offroad racing familia. Figured it was time to check it out, and get serious and send some packages of "thanks" to our soldiers overseas. While I may be a n00b to this forum, I am not new to forums in general.I am well aware of forum etiquette, the search function, bandwith, etc. haha!

 So far I have read a lot of great insightful information and received some great ideas just from browsing the site. My mom and I have already purchased some items for the unit we've selected to send a package to ... we're going to open it up to the offroad organization we are a large part of as well.. That way others will have a hand in it, we can get that much more items, and the offroad DVD's, magazine companies, etc. will step up. I am pretty excited!

Hey ya'll!

 My name is Renee and I heard about this site from my coworker, Wanette, a few months back. Wanette had been talking about the soldiers she has kept in touch with for years and how they sometimes feel forgotten about and need to be encouraged. I am now working on my 5th box and I have to say I am addicted! Everytime I go shopping I am always looking for things a soldier might like and each box is getting better! This is my first time to make Christmas boxes and it is so fun to encourage and support our troops in this way.

2 Corinthians 9:7 "....God loves a cheerful giver." 

Hi, my name is Niki and I live in Santa Cruz, CA.  I rediscovered this site a few months ago.  I had sent a package a few years ago, but the postage was extremely high, so I didn't continue.  But with all that is going on, I just had to do something.  Thank goodness, I checked out the site again, and with the flat-rate boxes, I can again participate.  I belong to a group of 12 women who meet once a month, so I got them to contribute.  We just sent off two boxes.  I was amazed at how much I could get in the large box.

 My family is going to contribute at our Thanksgiving dinner, so I should be sending more boxes.  My husband and I retired 12 years ago and moved to the "beach."  We have three grown children and three grandchildren.

 I will definitely continue to contribute to our amazing service personnel.

Greetings from the Midwest! Recently moved back here from Hawaii.  I am a newbie to this, but have had a bit of experience mailing stuff. My sis lived in japan for a year and a half, and I sell online. I am so glad to have found a real community that wants to help the soldiers! I posted on another site, but quickly became discouraged when it looked more and more  like an online bar.

I know it's not much, but I want to help. I will be lurking for a while till i get the hang of all this. :P

Thanks for this online community and the opportunity to help!

Beck

Welcome all you newcomers to the AS family.  Hope you have as much fun as we all do...I am sure you will find it rewarding. 

Niki I am not sure where in California you are as compared to where packages ship out, but you may be fairly close to the point where the FPO AP packages are shipped.  If so, it may be cost effective to ship regular boxes there as opposed to the FRBs.  When you look at the contacts info, it tells you at the top if they are AE or  AP.  The AP addresses ship out of California and the AE ones go through NY.  I live in upstate NY and rarely use FRBS when shipping to AE addresses since that is close to me.  If I pick a contact with the AP address, I always find FRBs to be cheaper.  But I prefer to ship to AE addresses to get more bang for the buck.  So this is something you may want to check out.  Regardless, have great fun shipping to our heroes!

Kathy