Afghanistan Community Service Idol

"I believe in courtesy, in kindness, in generosity, in good cheer, in friendship and in honest competition. I believe there is something doing somewhere, for every man ready to do it. I believe I'm ready, RIGHT NOW."
-Elbert HubbardUS author (1856 - 1915)

"In accordance with our principles of free enterprise and healthy competition, I'm going to ask you two to fight to the death for it."
-Monty Python

Thinking about all of the wonderful things that people back home have been doing for people in Afghanistan and the troops that are deployed overseas has given me a great idea (I know, I am so modest). I thought that it would be kind of fun to host an American Idol type competition where I showcased various community service projects that people have done or plan to do, specifically projects that support our troops and/or people of Afghanistan. This will also be a great opportunity for me to install the voting box that I have been dying to use. The winner of the contest will get a framed certificate signed by me along with and a very special place on my blog. The competition will take place on Nov 30th. Please email me with any entries you may have. Don’t worry, it is ok if you submit yourself.

Some ideas that you may want to consider is starting a 5K race and donating the proceeds to a local Afghan charity. Organizing a cookie drive for troops deployed downrange. Starting a children’s cold weather cloth drive through your church. The possibilities are endless. Be creative and more importantly make sure that you have fun doing it. Just for the record, I am not exempt from this competition by any means even though I am putting it on. I am working on an awesome community service project that will benefit local Afghan children. It will be hopefully be something that will be able to sustain itself after I leave here. I am going to have to keep you in suspense for a while until I get the details worked out. I am still in discussion with KBR, the Base mayor and some other folks out in town. I will keep you posted.

So without further adu, let’s start our first… (Dramatic pause)…..Afghan Community Service Idol….. (Cue the music).

Our first contestant is named Pink Country Girl (yes that is the name she provided on her email). She is a cousin of an Army Combat Medic stationed at COP near FOB Rustamiyah in Baghdad. She is currently sponsoring 2 soldiers through Soldier’s Angels. She has taken it upon herself to start a community service project where she asks businesses to donate medicines which she then sends to deployed soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have been the lucky recipient of one of her many packages and I have distributed them during the CMA that I participated in. The medicines that she sent were all high quality over the counter pharmaceuticals made by Perrigo Co.. They were donated by local Future Farmers of America alums. Additionally, the youth group that she is a part of is currently sponsoring 12 soldiers deployed overseas. Her quote is, “May the Lord bless and keep you for all that you are doing for the troops and the Iraqi people.” I am waiting for her permission to post her picture.

Lastly, I also have to mention, what is just as important as doing these community service projects is advertising and promoting them. I will be starting to write articles in an official air force capacity very soon. I think the first article that I will submit for publication will be on the HA school mission that I will be participating in later this week. Whenever an article gets published I will link it to the right hand column the right hand side so it can be showcased.

So do not forget to send in your submissions. I look forward to reading them.

Thanks for reading.