2009 totals - MARINES WIN!

Thanks to all who participated and or contributed to this campaign. A lot of technology for our wounded heroes will be purchased because of you!

Total brought in for all teams, including donations not designated to any team: $113,124.90
By team -
Air Force: $15,662.17
Army: $32,758.80
Marines: $43,060.89
Navy: $19,108.04
General donations: $2,535.00

Another successful campaign!

2009 marks another huge success for our 5th annual Soldiers' Angels Project Valour-IT internet fundraiser. We broke the 100K mark and had a smooth campaign from Oct 26th through November 11th. The official tallies will be available next week as all the checks sent in are calculated into the totals.

This was a team effort and we want to thank all who participated and donated. 100% of your donation go towards Soldiers' Angels Project Valour-IT go directly to the purchase and delivery of technology for the wounded. This fund will need additional support throughout the year as the need for our wounded grows.

Soldiers' Angels hopes you will continue to support us by adopting a hero, joining any of our 30 teams, by donating through the CFC fund,from your generous contributions and/or by just spreading the angel word. Together, wingtip to wingtip, we can accomplish so much for our heroes who put heir lives on the line for us.

Video Contest Winners

We would like to take this time to thank all those who created and submitted videos for the first annual Valour-IT video contest. We hope that all participants will promote these on their blogs as we enter into the final days of our fundraiser. Congratulations to our winners!!!

1st place Project Valour-IT: Help for our heroes from No Sheeples Here

This winner will receive a voice-activated laptop given in their name and a $75 gift certificate to the Soldiers'Angels store.

2nd place NEVER GOING TO BE ALONE from the Watch Cat

This Winner will receive a Wii donated in their name and $50 gift certificate for the Soldiers' Angels store.

3rd place How to Donate Video from the Greyhawks at Mudville Gazette.

This winner will receive a handheld GPS donated in their name and a $25 gift certificate for the Soldiers' Angels store.

Valour-IT Continues

Soldiers' Angels leadership and the Valour-IT team leaders discussed today's events and decided that the Valour-IT competition will continue through November 11th as originally planned.

We remember that though we enjoy friendly competition, underneath it all we are always united in spirit and support of each other.

For those who are interested in particularly supporting those affected by the massacre at Fort Hood, Soldiers' Angels is developing plans.

Jump on board Project Valour-IT

Seems it is all the rage to have an armed force Soldiers' Angels Valour-IT thermometer widget on a blog or website right now! It is not too late to join in, the fundraiser does not end until November 11th.

1.There are a variety of items up for Valour-IT auction. Go bid on one of them!

2. Go register your blog or website to join one of the 4 teams and get your own thermometer widget.

3. Make a donation - no matter how small. Remember 100% of proceeds go directly to purchase & delivery of technology to our wounded heroes.

4. Tell everyone you know about Project Valour-IT! Create a viral email or put on you Facebook wall.

5. Buy a fabulous gift for yourself or for someone for the holidays from one of the businesses supporting Valour-IT. Or register for the opportunity to win a beautiful Christmas quilt.

Though either Army, Air Force, Navy/Coast Guard, or Marines will be declared the winner of the competition and will gain bragging rights until next year, our wounded heroes are the winners! Go Project Valour-IT!

All-in-One for the New Week

We're gearing up for another full week of fundraising, and lots of exciting things are happening! Here's your one-stop shop for Valour-IT activities, resources, and info...

Activities

• Auctions: We're over 30 items now, and more will be added later today. There is some fantastic stuff in there!
• Video Contest: Win the opportunity to have a Valour-IT item donated in your name, as well as a gift certificate to the Angels Store, which can be used to buy a care package for a deployed soldier (among other things).
• Percentages: Supportive companies and individuals are offering a percentage of their sales (up to 100%) to Valour-IT.
• New Media: Don't forget to share Twitter and Facebook with those who use them. Squidoo can be helpful, too.
  

Resources

• Valour-IT in Action: Soldiers' Angels recently brought Valour-IT to Brooke Army Medical Center. It includes pictures!--A great resource for telling people about the project's impact.
• FAQ: Answers to commonly asked questions about the fundraiser.
• Twitter and blogging feeds: The latest news and chatter. If you want the code to put them on your blog, email beths@soldiersangels.org or holly@triogroto.com.
  
• Valour-IT Google Group: Get all the latest info and answers. Anyone can join.
• This blog: It's a tremendous resource of tips and stories about Valour-IT that an be very inspirational/motivational to donors. Take a look around!
• Challenges: Keep your eyes open for people/companies offering to match donations for a team. The Marine Team has used this tool to great effect.

Noteworthy posts:

• Halloween: CS Navy makes a great point.
• Courage: Cassandra draws on some fantastic stories of the kinds of people for which Valour-IT was created.
• Impact: The blessings of Valour-IT from the perspective of a wounded warrior's wife.

As you find other noteworthy posts, please share them on your blog, the Valour-IT group, or here in comments.

Marines, you may be in first, but knowing the Army's history in this competition, I hope you're prepared! Army, are you really going to let them beat you? Navy and Air Force, are you going to let the Army and Marine teams run away with this?

We've got a full head of steam now, and great resources to make this a huge success... Let's go!

Giving a Percentage

A number of business people have stepped up to provide their unique support to Valour-IT. From jewelry to books to clothing, people are doing what they can to help wounded warriors reconnect as they recover.

Vision-Strike-Wear.Com, designers and printers of military t-shirts for domestic and deployed military units and Bouhammer, leading milblogger, have teamed up to develop Twitter T-shirts for Valour-IT. The design features a Twitter bird in camouflage and a military style helmet, with a variety of catch phrases. All sales of the Twitter t-shirts are being donated to Valour-IT. Tood Gilbert of Vision-Strike-Wear.com says, "It is our pleasure to be able to participate and support this more-than-worthy cause."

Military wife and entrepreneur Andi Hurley has been a longtime supporter of Soldiers' Angels. When she opened her store, MilitaryMatters.org, she designed a necklace especially for Soldiers' Angels and pledged to donate a portion of her profits to the organization. During the Valour-IT fundraiser (October 26 to November 11), she will donate $2 from ANY Military Matters purchase and $5 from each Soldiers’ Angels necklace to Valour-IT.

From October 26 through November 11 Author Judy Pugh is donating 10% of the cost of each sale of her inspirational new book, Reporting for Doodie, to Valour-IT. Reporting for Dootie is her story of caring for her grandson while both her daughter and son-in-law were deployed, and her discovery of “a secret vault filled with friends I never knew I had. I found myself in the midst of an unexpected divorce, facing the possible loss of my home and making a major career change when someone, somewhere, took a look at my proverbial ‘plate’ and thought… ‘there’s a little corner of her plate that isn’t taken, she needs a toddler to care for…oh, and at the same time, let’s throw in a rarely-heard-of medical condition to make her life even more interesting.’”

Grammy Awarding-winning singer-songwriter James Hooker is also pitching in with a beautiful donation. He is in the final stages of recording a new arrangement of his powerful Hangin’ Out with the Boys, which will be included in a new CD by the same name. When it is complete, he will be donating all proceeds from downloads of the songs through December 31 to Project Valour-IT. You can watch a video of the original Hangin’ Out with the Boys below.

AUCTIONS BEGIN

We are very excited and pleased to announce the kickoff of the annual Valour-IT auctions. Teams who put items up for auction will be credited with the amount of the sale towards their final total.

There will eventually be over a hundred items up for auction, raging from gorgeous autographed Navy lithographs and books, to a personally-autographed Day by Day print for the Air Force Team, sports memorabilia, and many other interesting items. It's a great opportunity to purchase something special for yourself or as a gift and know that by doing so you helped a wounded soldier.

This round of auctions ends in seven days. If you have an item you would like to auction for Valour-IT, please contact campaign@soldiersangels.org.

Now go bid on some items! All item listings can be found here.

Video Contest

UPDATE: Contest deadline extended until Friday November 6th midnight central time. Winners announced the 7th.

Goal: Make a 3 minute or shorter video about Project Valour-IT (keep it clean folks)

To Qualify: Your video must be posted by midnight central time November 3rd on one of the websites or blogs registered on a team for Project Valour-IT and email campaign@soldiersangels.org when it is live. You may enter as many as you want. If you do not have a website or blog and would like to participate, please contact any of the owners on the blogroll.

Winners: The winner will be announced November 4th 9:00 PM central time

Prizes:
1st place - a voice-activated laptop given in the name of the winner and a $75 gift certificate to the Soldiers' Angels store

2nd place - a Wii donated in the name of the winner and a $50 gift certificate for the Soldiers' Angels store

3rd place - a handheld GPS donated in the name of the winner and a $25 gift certificate for the Soldiers' Angels store

One Face of Valour-IT

Awhile back, Soldiers' Angels received a heartwarming thank you from a Valour-IT recipient. At the time, we kept his privacy by only revealing that he was a lieutenant colonel, but now we have an update.

He gave us permission to share his note and his name:

I don't know where to start. I was thrilled and truly appreciative of the laptop donation that Soldiers Angels sent. My neurology team is ecstatic with the progress that I have made, yet we all temper our excitement as I still have a long recovery ahead. Due to the great hearts (sponsors, donors, volunteers and others too numerous to mention) within Soldiers Angels I have become more mobile in my rehabilitation and the laptop is absolutely one of the tools that I have in my recovery toolbox. I use it to keep current on my schedule and have several applications that assist with recovery.

I know that my recovery has been aided by the cards, letters, and notes sent by your Angels. I love to read them and have started to send Thank You's to many of them. I just want you and everyone to know that your organization is a Godsend to Soldiers. Please send this note of Thanks to the appropriate personnel, and if there is anything I can do to help, let me know.

God Bless You and God Bless America.

Respectfully,

J.P. Moszer

LTC Moszer is now back to work and recently shared a breakfast with Soldiers' Angel Shelle Michaels, where she took the picture above.

Just a reminder that through this fundraising cometition we are helping real people, faces of courage and strength whose rehabilitation after devastating wounds was profoundly affected by the support of Valour-IT and Soldiers' Angels...

Please help spread the word!

Here We Go!

Midnight is the official kickoff!!!! First off, thank you to our our team leaders. This fundraiser would not even happen without their dedication and commitment. And thank you to all are stepping up to help spread the word on blogs, email and websites!

Don't forget to use all the resources we have, include Facebook, Twitter (#valourit), and similar tools.

GOOD LUCK! HAVE FUN!!!! The heroes will all win because of your efforts!

~Greta, Shelle, Beth~

Angels, Laptops and Cartoons

The highly-talented Damon Shackelford has penned a fantastic series of cartoons featuring Soldiers' Angels. His latest installment of Delta Bravo Sierra drills down to Valour-IT:

Rusty also featured Valour-IT in his cartoons around last year's fundraiser. See the list below for his other recent strips about Soldiers' Angels, or just click here to catch up with the current intertwined storylines:

On Valour-IT
On Soldiers' Angels
On First Response Backpacks

Thank you so much, Rusty. They are all fantastic! Can't wait to see what you come up with for next week!

Online Registration

Online registration is up and running!

Start here, where you can also find links to Twitter and Facebook, and the new Valour-IT graphic--just click on graphic for the team you want to join. If you already registered directly with your team leader, you'll still want to go through this process to be added to the team blogroll and receive your widget code.

Right now, the widgets show a notice of the start date rather than a donation button. On the 26th, we will "flip the switch" and the donation button will appear.

If you have technical questions, please email holly-at-triogroto.com or beths-at-soldiersangels.org. All other questions, contact your team leader or campaign-at-soldiersangels.org.

Thank you all so much for joining the Valour-IT fundraising competition! Have fun, and good luck!

October 26th -Nov 11, 2009

Register for the 2009 Fundraising Competition!

Follow @valourit on Twitter and Facebook!
(email campaign@soldiersangels.org for more information)

We are gearing up for the 4th annual Soldiers' Angels Project Valour-IT Internet fundraiser! Our team leaders are...

Air Force: Mudville Gazette - greyhawk@mudvillegazette.com
Army: Blackfive - blackfive@gmail.com
Marine Corps: Villainous Company - cassandra.vc@gmail.com
Navy: US Naval Institute Blog - mripley@usni.org

If you would like to donate an item for the eBay auction planned, please contact holly@hollyaho.com.

Still Going Strong!

Between the online fundraiser and the big Soldiers' Angels Gala in DC, things got pretty crazy last Fall...

I just wanted to let all of you know that the latest info on Valour-IT can always be found on the official Soldiers' Angels Valour-IT pages.

We have now distributed well over 3,000 and the project is growing as the need continues.

Thank you to all who have supported us over the years!

Preliminary Totals

The competition aspect of the fundraiser officially ended at midnight Pacific on November 27, and the team totals at that time (plus checks received by mail) will be the totals used for the standings. However, the widgets will remain active until Monday (Dec. 1) when the main website will be updated, and I will give full fundraising numbers after that. We also have a few auctions (unaffiliated donations) that will not be completed until tomorrow night.

So, here are the preliminary totals (I'm still waiting for word on a full tally of team-specific check donations, so these could change):

Army	31,927
Navy	21,475
Marines	10081
Air Force	9437
Coast Guard	1766
Unaffiliated	8400
TOTAL	$83,086

The level of unaffiliated donations may continue to rise significantly, as those who send checks tend not to designate a team, and any additional donations coming in through the widgets from now until Monday will not be credited to a specific team in the final standings.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Thank you all for your generosity of time, spirit and donations, and for all your hard work. Due to a number of factors, it was a bit tough this year, but you did amazing work. And because of that work, Valour-IT is going to be able to continue to supply voice-activated laptops and other technology to help those who have given so much. Thank you!

(I'll have more detailed thank yous after Monday when the full numbers come in).

Standing Up

"It really lets me know that there are people out there that still care about the troops and what they are sacrificing for this country."

"Words cannot convey how very much this means to me."

"It was the first time I felt whole."

"I am proud to serve this country knowing there are people like you that I am protecting."

...the words of recipients of Valour-IT-provided technology to support their recovery.

I suppose I could give you a guilt trip, paint a picture that would have you wiping your eyes, etc...

But there's no need for guilt trips. It's not a matter of emotion. It's simply the right thing to do. The government behemoth doesn't move fast enough to meet all the needs of our wounded veterans; we can... But only with the help of hundreds and thousands of patriotic, caring citizens like you. Citizens who know the obligation we have to those who have stood the line in our place and left a piece of themselves on that line. Citizens who know how blessed they are to sit down and use their computer without a second thought. Citizens who will never know what it's like to wake up and wonder if they'll ever be able to use their battered arm again. Citizens who are safe and comparatively carefree... because someone else paid the sometimes-steep price for their freedom.

It's not something to feel guilty for. But it is something that we will always be indebted for. They stood up for us in hard times, signed on the dotted line when they knew it meant wartime service. Now it's our turn to stand up for them in hard times, when the money isn't coming so easily for us.

Five dollars? It's five more than Valour-IT had before. Ten? Fifteen? Like raindrops running down the window pane turn to rivulets, steams and rivers, we can be a mighty force when we each do our part.

If you haven't donated, please do. If you have, thank you! And please, tell a friend or a faily member about the impact of Valour-IT on wounded soldiers.

Drip, drip, drip... it all adds up, and every cent is needed. This Thanksgiving, please thank a wounded warrior by helping him as he fights to regain his life.

It's our turn to stand up.

Latest Totals

Due to unaffiliated donations (donations made to Valour-IT but not in the name of any team), our fundraising total is over $6,000 higher than the widgets show. As always, there are other reasons for any variations between this and the widget totals, plus we still have checks to count. With a big push, I think we could still break $100,000...

Look who's on top, now... Navy has some work to do! ;)

	Total Donors	Total Raised
Army	214	29,402
Navy	121	21,025
Marines	92	8601.2
Air Force	98	6693.27
Coast Guard	28	1555.95
Unaffiliated	61	6116
TOTAL	614	73,393