I love it when folks introduce themselves. I was wondering how they learned about anysoldier. I was at a different website talking about soldiers and I was sent here. How about you?

 Origianally I got a note in a newsletter from a friend who makes body care and aromatherapy products.  She was supporting and offering folks the opportunity to contribute to her packages, or sign up for themselves.   Then my sis came to visit and got me hooked on the forums.  

 For Christmas a few years back, my family decided instead of spending money on each other, we would send a package through TreatAnySoldier.com to someone deployed in the war on terror. On TreatAnySoldier, there was mention of AnySoldier.com so we checked it out, and have been hooked ever since. 430+ troops later, we're still into supporting our warriors with as much enthusiasm as we felt when we adopted the first group.

I saw an  anysoldier bumper sticker on the heroes board at work . So I logged on and quickly became a junkie

I learned about anysoldier from another soldier support website.

I learned about it from the forum of a coupon website.  In the donating/charities thread, someone suggested sending some of the free/almost free hygiene items to soldiers on anysoldier and included a link.  Many FRB's later, I am a junkie!

I read a little blurb in Real Simple magazine..."Have you ever wondered how to send a care package to someone in harm's way...?"  It then listed the AnySoldier website.  That was almost 2 years ago.  The rest is history : )

Kate

After sitting in a hospital bed, complaining about not being able to have a snack, I saw soldiers on the news in really rough terrain and I vowed to send them snacks.  AND the hunt began on how to do so...

A friend said she donated part of her website sales to a group called Any Soldier Inc...

 and the rest is history! 

Many snacks, toiletries, downtime items, etc, etc, etc,...

I'm an AS JUNKIE!

 I saw a local newspaper article about a lady who was given the honor of being a Grand Marshall in a parade because she organized sending Care Packages to the troops through AnySoldier. The article  listed where to drop stuff off for her to put in packages.

 I thought, I can do that myself..... and searched through to find AnySoldier.  I reach some of the contact posts and was hooked. For some  insane reason it tugs at my heart to read someone needs socks.  And I'm not even a fan of wearing socks! That is such a basic simple .oh gee, it just gets me every time.

 Proud to be Here

Amy

I make surgical hats and have an eBay and website business. Last week, a lady who saw a request for scrub hats,contacted me and I am now hooked. I read each new post and take notes and after about 2 weeks I have sent 3 boxes. I'd love to be able to send more but will pass on all of the information to my friends and family and church. My main focus will be brightening up their day in the O.R. with their scrub hats. Over the past couple of years I have sent around 500 out to the field units both through contacts I become aware of and through LHCP (Landstuhl Hospital Care Project).

Great to meet you all!

Sheri

I found any soldier on google. The story is way more complicated than that though. In 2004 my uncle deployed to Afghanistan with the Michigan National Guard. As a family we sent package after package, someone sent something weekly. About 3 months into his deployment he sent me a letter talking about a young soldier that he was with whom he met just before leaving. His unit was attached to an active duty unit from Fort Hood. The soldier that he was talking about was 18 and just finish boot camp and training before being deployed. He also had no family to speak of as he had spent much of his childhood in foster care boncing between families and schools. My uncle had noticed that he wasn't getting any mail and asked that I write to him. I did and made a wonderful friend. Knowing that my uncle was well taken care of by the rest of the family I started sending some of the packages to the other soldier. When it came time for R&R my uncle brought this soldier home with him after alot of work to get his leave changed to the same time as his. Once they returned to the states this soldier wrote me a long letter in which he thanked me for my supportt and said that I gave him a reason to return from every mission by just knowing that someone cared if he came home or not. I was hooked I started looking for a way to support others just like this young soldier that just needed to know someone cared. After an extensive google search I found any soldier and well now I'm a junkie. I have lost count of the number of soldiers and contacts over the years but I know that I have touched alot of people. Though this endeaver has been full of happiness, fear, sadness and everything in between I am so glad to have the oppertunity to show my support. I am still in contact with my soldier friend who has made the military his career and has been very successful.

Thank You Any Soldier

Holly

Gosh, I don't remember exactly. It was so long ago! I had been supporting brothers of friends, boys from church, and they all came home. (Yay!) I think I was looking online for a way to continue supporting a soldier, when I found this site. SO many soldiers later, card swaps and quilting bees, and now we are setting up a tent at a major event where we hope to spread the love to potentially 200,000 people!! (what were we thinking!!) I love it! It has really been life altering.  I have been supporting troops since I was a child-baking cookies for my dad's battalion, and his officers during their meetings. Missed baking them at one meeting, and he called me saying he had never heard such an uproar from grown men when the cookies didn't appear! I was hooked at that point! So I am so glad to continue these MANY years later-even if the treats are not home made-the sentiment is the same.

Heidi