Keystone Soldiers

Current Care Package List

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:30:00 -0700

Current Wish List for Care Packages:

This list is current and updated on October 1st, 2008. Our packages go to all branches of the military and to locations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Korea and any other troops who request support from home. All items are sorted and packed according to the requests we get directly from the troops or their families. Our mailing address is posted at the top of the page. Please use the street address ONLY for shipping via UPS, FedEx, DHL or common carrier! For all mail and packages via USPS you must use the Fleetwood post office box.

*** 12" to 15" CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS for the holidays*** Can be home made or store bought!
*Cold drink mixes � Gatorade, Crystal Lite, Kool Aid or the individual flavor straws you add to bottled water
Ground Coffee (not instant), tea, hot chocolate or spiced cider. Coffee creamer and sugar packets too!
*Power Bars, cereal bars, trail mix and healthy snacks
Ramen Noodle packs (the big cups are hard to pack and limit what we can fit in the packages)
*Slim Jims, *Beef or Turkey Jerky
*Microwave Popcorn
Granola Bars
Sunflower Seeds & Nuts
***Individual snacks like chips, crackers, cookies, cheese/cracker kits
*Peanut Butter & Jelly � small size plastic jars please
Small sewing kits and manicure kits
*Sunscreen and insect repellent, Chap Stick with sunscreen, Carmex, Blistex
**Body wash mens and ladies
Shampoo - mens and ladies
Deodorant
*Foot Powder and foot cream for athlete's foot
Odor Eaters (for boots), Dr. Scholl's foot pads, blister pads
Hand Sanitizer - small size bottles to carry with them
Shave cream � non-aerosol only and good razors
Hand and foot warmers
Mens and Ladies underwear in sizes Small, Med, Large
Ladies calf high socks or boot socks
New or used game systems like PS2 or Xbox
Video games for the systems above or small hand-held games
**CDs and DVDs - New or used are fine. Current releases are appreciated
*AT&T Global Pre-Paid Calling Cards (available at Sam�s Club or www.aafes.com)
Money for shipping costs. Please, please! We need to raise at least $15,000 to ship the stockings and holiday cards!

* = Items most needed or requested by the troops! ***We are currently OUT of STOCK on cookies, fruit snacks, chips, and crackers. We still need jerky, slim jims and body wash.

You can print this list to share with others or take shopping with you by clicking the link at the top of the article! You are welcome to print as many copies as you like so please pass them on to others who are interested in supporting our troops.

Please do not send any more cans of vegetables or outdated food items. They cost a lot to throw away. We do NOT need any more books right now. Please consider sending underwear or DVDs instead.

****Monetary donations are needed to help us ship the care packages. This is always our biggest need by far. Shipping costs have increased and we really need to be able to get the packages out every week. We ship Wednesday and Saturday and are currently sending 50 to 200 boxes every week. The troops are counting on us.

Keep reading....lots more info.....

**Please note: 1) The U.S. Postal Service regulations do not allow anything in aerosol cans to be shipped. 2) We do not need any chocolate candy until late October. 3) Shipping currently takes about 10 days to the combat zones. It takes us about a week to get everything sorted and boxed. Please keep this in mind when you are checking expiration dates on food items.

Thanks for your continued support!

~Lordzmom

Aydin Displays Announces SUPPORT OUR SOLDIERS Collection

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:48:00 -0700

Art Mengel, President, Aydin Displays in conjunction with S. Kyle Lord, Director of Keystone Soldiers, is proud to announce a collection of items for area soldiers. Items that will be collected are underwear (men�s & ladies, boxers or briefs), beef jerky/Slim Jims, breakfast bars and notes of encouragement.

Items can be dropped off in the front office between the hours of 8:30 AM � 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday at their Birdsboro location. The collection will take place until October 17th. Aydin Displays is located at 1 Riga Lane, directly off of Rt. 422E.

Keystone Soldiers is a volunteer non-profit organization that supports soldiers on the front line with care packages.

For more information about this event, please contact Dina Schock at 610.404.5353

It's that time again!

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:15:00 -0700

Keystone Soldiers is gearing up for our annual Stockings for Soldiers campaign for the holidays. This will be our 6th Christmas season sending holiday cheer from home to those serving our country all over the world. One of our big needs is the Christmas stockings so that we have enough to cover the 6,000 or so troops on our list that have already signed up. Please help us make sure that none of our troops goes without a holiday smile from home this year.

If you have a church group or scout troop or even a sewing club that could help us out with some 12" to 15" stockings it would be a huge blessing. They can be home-made, sewn from felt or purchased. We have had to buy some extras the last couple years and the Dollar Tree stores usually have a great selection for only $1 each. We currently have a couple hundred in stock thanks to the Lynn family and several other donors who have drooped off bags of them at our Leesport packing location. We appreciate all of you who have remembered that we have to start early to make sure the stockings get there in plenty of time. Registered users can view some of the photos of those who received stockings from us last year in the Media Gallery!

Our other BIG need for this campaign will be the money to ship the stockings. The economic situation has hit us hard the last few months. I know that times are tough and that when you are struggling to put gas in your car and food on the table that one of the items that is not on your mind is giving money away. All I can ask is if you can help us with $5.00 or a package of snacks or socks or other items from the list to put in the stockings you do so. We truly appreciate any help at all and no donation is too big or too small.

We will be posting more details on Stockings for Soldiers and some extra packing dates and times over the next few weeks. We hope to see lots of our old friends during the holday season!

Thanks for your continued support for Keystone Soldiers and for our troops!

~Lordzmom

Cruise for Our Troops - American Proud

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:45:00 -0700

Where: Dave's Diner
Route 272
Adamstown, PA

Description: RAIN DATE: Sept 21st and admission is FREE!

Sponsored by Cocalico Cruisers and Dave's Diner to salute our troops and honor SFC Gary DeCola.

Music provided by: The Sound Factory! Pig roast dinner with all the fixin's is available for purchase. One Dave's Diner Employee Choice Award will be given in each of the following categories: Car, Truck, Motorcycle and Oldest Vehicle. This is only a partial list of the prizes!

Care package donations will be accepted (and greatly appreciated) at the event. Please see the current list of items needed on our front page. Representatives from Keystone Soldiers will be on hand for those who would like to sponsor care packages. A sample care package will be available to view. There will be a Keystone Soldiers trophy for the car owner who collects the most votes (money). Be sure to vote for your favorite car by dropping some cash in their collection box! The trophy was sponsored by www.1usa.com

For more information please visit www.cocalicocruisers.com or email: tl79camaro@yahoo.com with Dave's Diner Cruise in the subject line.

FOOD! FUN! MUSIC! COOL CARS! And admission is FREE! Please join us and show your support!

Welcome Frederick, MD!

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:28:00 -0700

Keystone Soldiers is proud to welcome our new drop off location in Frederick, MD.! Cheri Thompson did a super job of introducing Keystone Soldiers to the community and we cannot thank Gene of Frederick Nissan enough for the car show and all he did to make this event a HUGE success.

We will be adding Cheri's contact information to the drop off locations on the front page. Anyone in Maryland, as well as south central Pennsylvania can contact Cheryl Thompson at 240-446-4038 for an appointment to deliver items to her for shipping to our troops.

Here is the link to the article posted on Frederick.com: http://frederick.com/Keystone_Solders-a-332.html. I hope to get some of the video clips on our website but in the meantime you can watch the video and view the photos there.

I am waiting for the list of sponsors so we can thank each and every one!

It was a beautiful day in spite of the heat and we got to meet so many wonderful people. It was heartwarming to see one of the troops who had received our care packages AND the father of one of the female troops who we supported when she was deployed! THANK YOU! to our PA volunteers who made the trip to help. Stacey, Karen and Jim did a super job manning our booth. THANK YOU! to the legion of volunteers from Frederick who set up, cooked food, staffed the booths, sold tickets and made this day very special!

Registered users can login and view the new photo album in the Media Gallery! We have about 35 pictures that Jim took of the event and he even got some of the drifting burnout competition! If anyone else has pictures they would like included in the album please send me an email and I will send you instructions and the access to upload them.

~Lordzmom

Care Package Donation Collection

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:09:00 -0700

We will be glad to help you put together a care package (or several!). This article will get you started and like all our articles on the website you can print this out to use as a guideline. Just click on the small printer icon to the right of the title or at the bottom of the article for a printable page format.

First thing to do is visit our website and print out the current list of most needed items. We have a short list of urgent request items on our website: Care Package List and we update this list at least once or twice a month as the troops let us know exactly what they need. You can click on the link at the bottom of the article for a printable page format. We also list emergency requests on our Forum on the website. Click the Forum link in the top navigation bar and look for the Care Package Requests forum.

If this is a group project you should distribute the list and set a collection date. Be sure to allow enough time for everyone to do their shopping! You might also want to print out a couple of our monetary donation forms for those who do not have time to shop or who would like to help with the postage costs. The link is on the right hand side of the website or I can email you a Microsoft Word document upon request. If you are doing this on your own just take the list shopping for the items you would like to include.

When all the items are collected simply pack them up and mail them to our packing office or deliver them to us and we will take it from there! Our mailing address listed on the main page of the website and at the bottom of this article. All items are inspected in our office and packaged to go to the units that need them most. Our street address is at the top of the main page of our website or at the bottom of this article.

We encourage you to include letters or cards with words of encouragement. You can add as many as you like and we will make sure they get delivered with your care packages. For some of our troops the letters are even more important than the contents of the package. The longer they are away from home the harder it is to remember that they have people here who support them.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions or need more help! Our email is: keystonemilitary@yahoo.com. Thank you for supporting our troops!

Street Address:

Keystone Soldiers
5 S. Centre Ave
Schoolside Plaza - Suite 106
Leesport, PA 19533
Please check our website for current hours. If you need a special appointment for drop off please call 610-698-2122 or email us.

Postal Address:

Keystone Soldiers
P.O. Box 152
Fleetwood, PA 19522

Benefit Car Show

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:03:23 -0700

Sam's Club Fundraiser

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:53:00 -0700

Please join us At Sam's Club this coming Friday from 10 AM to 7 PM for lots of food and fundraising! Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chips, baked goods, candy and plenty of cold drinks! YUM!

Sam's Club #8160
5314 Allentown Pike
Temple, PA 19560

We will have a sample care package there and will have sponsorship cards for those who would like to send a care package to the troops. It only costs $20.00 to send a big box of supplies and a personal message to one of the heroes serving our country.

Come on out for a cheap lunch or dinner and pick up a brochure and care package wish list. If you like, you can shop for items from our list while you do your weekly shopping at Sam's. Then just drop them at our table on your way to the car. If you prefer you can make a cash donation at our table. All proceeds will go directly to postage for shipping.

Hope to see you there!

~Lordzmom

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Request from a friend

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:59:00 -0700

Our friend (and soldier we supported) Army Girl received a phone call a few weeks ago. One of her own was hurt badly while serving his country. He was being moved to Walter Reed Hospital and needed to have his wife there to help him recover. Army Girl has been working tirelessly to help and support this this family both emotionally and financially during this rough time. The good news is that he is making progress. The bad news is that his recovery will be measured in months, not days. Please check out her site. If you can help this family, please do what you can to let them know that America has their back!

You can click on the name Army Girl anywhere in this article and you will be taken to the website.

Thanks very much!
~Lordzmom

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Philadelphia Park Casino

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 10:56:00 -0700

Our sincere and heartfelt thanks to Philadelphia Park Casino! For Armed Services Day they made a donation for every Players Club card that was used in a machine at their casino. They raised a total of $24,000.00 to be split between 3 organizations.

At the check presentation ceremony on Friday we received a check for $8,000.00 to help us with shipping costs and supplies we need for care packages! AWESOME!!!!!

The other 2 organizations were Soldiers for Hope and Bucks County Veterans! We should have photos and the press release soon! :D Thank you very much!