Had several service men and women in the store Friday and Saturday who were deploying to the gulf this weekend, buying supplies, MP3 players, cell phones, headsets, etc. I shook their hands and made sure we all thanked them for their bravery and standing up for our nation. One soldier had just gotten back at 2 am that morning from his 6th tour in Iraq and was excited to be heading out to the gulf to help. What leadership and selfless devotion to our country!
One of the most-requested items that soldiers need are batteries to power their portable devices. Every year at Christmas time for the last 3 years we've done battery drives in stores, where people can purchase and donate packs of AA and AAA batteries and drop in a dropbox we set up. After Christmas, we collect all the dropboxes and deliver them to the USO who ship them overseas directly to the troops. If you have a USO nearby, drop off some batteries; someone overseas will thank you!