A Plea for Help

I don't like to beg. Heck, I don't even like to have to ask someone for a favor. But I'm going to swallow my pride and do both (i.e., beg, and ask for a favor). You see, I have a bit of a problem. As of today, there are 100 deployed troops who have signed up through Operation Sauce Drop to receive a free gift box of sauces to help spice up their bland, boring MREs. The problem is that Operation Sauce Drop has run out of money, and we can't fulfill these gift box requests until we raise more funds. What's really depressing is that some of the soldiers have been on the Operation Sauce Drop "waiting list" since December!

Before I beg (and ask for a favor), first let me say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to those of you who have already donated to Operation Sauce Drop, and/or who have helped spread the word about this nonprofit program to send free boxes of sauce to US troops stationed abroad. Your generosity is deeply appreciated by these brave servicemen and women, and by their loved ones, as you can see from the touching thank you notes and photos from the troops who have already received gift boxes (over 150 troops have received gift boxes to date).

Now I beg. If you haven't yet contributed, please consider donating to Operation Sauce Drop. The average cost to send out a gift box is about $20, but even $5 can help (and of course $50 or $100 means that more soldiers will get their sauces sooner). EVERY SINGLE PENNY donated goes solely to pay for the cost to purchase and ship a gift box, and the Carolina Sauce Company donates a portion of the cost for each gift box as well.

And now I ask for a favor. If you have already made a donation, or if you cannot make one at this time for whatever reason, you can still help our troops get their sauce by spreading the word about Operation Sauce Drop. This means emailing people you think might want to donate, posting the link to Operation Sauce Drop (<a href="http://carolinasauce.stores.yahoo.net/opsadr.html"/a>) on forums where folks might be interested, placing an Operation Sauce Drop banner on your website or Facebook or MySpace page, mentioning this program to friends on social networks or chat rooms, or doing anything else you can think of to let more people know how they can bring a smile to a soldier's face by sending them the gift of zestiness for their meals.

As always, thanks for reading my blog, and for all of your help with this effort.

Zestfully yours,
Gloria

PS: If you're wondering why the background in the photo is "blurred out", it's because there was potentially sensitive info (e.g., family photo, legible papers, etc.) and we didn't want to inadvertently jeopardize the serviceman's safety. I have no idea if any of that info might have been "sensitive", but I'd rather err on the side of paranoia rather than doing anything that could possibly compromise the safety of our troops!