Happy Armed Forces Day!!

Happy Armed Forces Day to all the wonderful men and women serving in the United States military! Many countries around the world celebrate Armed Forces Day on different days throughout the year, but here in the USA, Armed Forces Day falls annually on the third Saturday of May.

I've learned of two interesting organizations that send books to members of the military, Books For Soldiers & Operation Paperback with the help of volunteers.

The Books For Soldiers website wrote the following about their organization:

During the first Gulf War, several of my friends from school were in the reserves and were activated to fight the Iraqis. CNN reported that once the soldiers were deployed, they were faced with massive downtime and were restricted to their base due to the travel limitations set by the Saudi government.

I am a voracious reader and at the beginning of the Gulf War, I had a closet full of paperback books. Books that were not being used. So instead of selling them at the used book store, I packed them up in small care packages and sent them out to all the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen I had addresses for.

Within a few weeks, I ran out of books before I ran out of addresses. Friends and family members began donating their paperback books and in the end, over 1000 books were sent to the Gulf.

After the war, we received many thank-you notes from soldiers who got one of our books. Unless it was time for them to fly back home, mail-call days were one of the most anticipated events of deployment. Regardless of why the military is deployed, the men and women of our armed services are there for us. They deserve our support and if we can make their deployment easier, then all the better.

Currently, BFS is a non-profit corporation, operated as a ministry of the non-denominational, interfaith Order of the Red Grail church in North Carolina. You can download our IRS 501(c)(3) approval letter in PDF format.

The Operation Paperback website wrote the following about their organization:

Operation Paperback is a non-profit organization incorporated in the State of Pennsylvania that collects gently used books nationwide and sends them to American troops deployed overseas. Since 1999, we have shipped over 1.7 million books to locations around the globe. Our service members make sacrifices every day for our country. It takes so little to let them know that we appreciate what they are doing for us. When you donate to Operation Paperback, you will let our troops know that you support them, and you have not forgotten them.

Click on above links to learn more about both Operation Paperback and Books For Soldiers. Please consider joining either organization to support our troops!!