Thanks from Jim's Family

I’m Jan and your group sent cookies to my Jim this month.(November Group 3) I can’t tell you how thrilled he was to receive them!

He received 3 or 4 boxes at the beginning of the month. Then he had to go out on some missions up in the mountains. At that time, he took a turkey and fixings plus a box of “his home made” cookies to share with his soldiers. As this group was far up in the mountains, they were sure they would not have a Thanksgiving dinner let alone ‘real” cookies.

Upon his return to base camp, he found several more boxes of cookies. He called his wife to tell her about them. She said it was the first time in a long time she heard laughter in their conversation.

Your thoughtfulness brings much joy to these soldiers and their families. God bless you and all the bakers working on your project.

Sincerely,

Jan

Matt and His Family Send Thanks!!

From Matt (Our December soldier-Group 1)
"I just recieved your care package. I just wanted to say thank you so much it was really nice of you to take time out of your day and think of us! There are 41 Firefighters here with me who all wanted to say thanks! We are all enjoying the great baking you have sent here. Can you please inform anyone else who may have helped with this package that it has arrived and we are all very thankful!! Once again Thank you, your support really means alot to us!"

Matt Smith

Firefighter

Kirkuk, Iraq

From Matt's mom Betsy
"I just received an email from Matt about the wonderful cookies, slim jims, cakes, peanuts, etc... he said they have received care packages before from military support groups but this was so much better then they have ever received. He wanted to know if I knew who sent them since the [some of the] boxes were from Westlake, so close to home. .......I too can not thank you enough. It brings tears to my eyes to think how very thoughtful you are to think of my Matt. I know how much this means to him, not being able to be home for the holidays. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart."

Our Baking Gals Get an Award!

Scott and his unit were kind enough pass on their appreciation to our bakers!!!
It reads, "In recognition of your generous contributions to 1-137th Delta Company Assault Helicopter battalion. We greatly appreciate your support to our Troops in the fight. Your thoughtfulness has brought an outlet to many service members as they serve away from their families and homes. We are proud to serve the wonderful citizens of out nation."
Thank you Scott!! It's our pleasure.

We have heard from Becky, the mom of one of our August soldiers, Matt Perrings. Matt called and said to tell everyone thank you for the cookies. He was so surprised and got so many that his unit enjoyed also and sends thanks. Matt has been promoted to Sgt. and he is to finish this tour in December and should be home for a few weeks , hopefully on Christmas.

Also from the parents of Kevin Quinn, one of our October airmen comes word that Kevin and his fellow servicemen were thrilled with the packages. He was able to share with others at a distant outpost. His dad said as one of a few Air Force on an Army base, the cookies made him a popular guy!

Baking Gals Featured in Taste of Home Magazine

Read about our national group in Taste of Home!

Thanks

...... what you and all of the bakers do means so much to these guys. It's just the feeling that they get when they receive these cookies and it reminds them of home......

.....Thank you and everyone so much for thinking of Chris. Your hard work just means everything to these men and women......

All the best,

Karen Bragg

A Soldier's Mom Thanks you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Baking Gal's of Ohio :^D

My son, Marine Corporal Tyler Kantorowski was one of your featured soldiers for the month of June.
Tyler is in Iraq and is part of the CLB-4 Combat Engineer Division.
He called me on Monday (8/10) and was so overwhelmed with gratitude for the 8 boxes of cookies he received that day, he told me one of the rules is when you receive a package you have to empty it from the box and take the contents out immediately and put them into a plastic bag and burn the box with all addresses that it was packaged in. He said he couldnt believe it, EIGHT boxes in one day, and 3 of the ladies had packaged their goods together in one box so that was 10 bakers and dozens and dozens of cookies. He said the boxes were all dated June, the most current with a date of June 20th - so since they have been on the road working these packages took 7-10 weeks to catch up with him. He said he copied down as many names as he could before the boxes and packaging were taken away to be burned and wanted to give a heartfelt shout out to: ...
all the ...wonderful bakers that singled him out and made his life a lot brighter that day and many days to follow before the sweets ran out.

Ty said he was immediately surrounded by all the guys looking to see what he had received and what he was sharing with them all. Tyler said it was so wonderful to have a little taste of home and they made great snacks to fill their pockets with out on the road.

Ladies, I tear up when I think of all of you baking for our troops and especially all the prayers that are sent up in their names. Thank you all. Thank you for making my son your Marine for June and for all the prayer directed right at him. Thank you for all your time and all the love and support that went into every batch of every baked good sent. Every day is such a struggle and without FAITH in our DEAR LORD I truly don't think I could have made it thus far, in fact I know I couldnt have. So thank you. :^D This Marine Mami continues to feel so very blessed and very proud of my son and all our military men and women.
Here are a few pics of Ty and his guys. (Tyler is always the tallest one out of the group) :^D

http://www.spiritisup.com/prayerforsoldiers.html

Cheryl Kantorowski

Our Soldiers Share!

One of our bakers, Marilyn, forwarded this email to me. It shows a little how our group works.
Ma'am,
I just want to thank you very much for your cookies that you sent. One
of my fellow Captains, CPT Tony Cox, shared his care package with me and
the cookies are so good!!!!
I appreciate you taking the time to do that for the Soldiers.
With Great Respect,
Nelson
3rd Brigade Combat Team

Soldier Thank You

My name is Tony Cox .... I just wanted to thank you for the cookies I received a couple days ago. They were honestly some of the best cookies I've ever had! My soldiers and I love them. (Or, I should say, loved them... they were gone pretty quickly.) The funny thing is that since they were sitting in our mail container outside, the packages were still warm when they got to us, so it was almost like they just came out of the over when they got to us!

Thanks again from me and my team.

All the best,

Tony Cox

Soldier Thank You

Dear Operation Baking Gals,

I would like to take this time the thank the Operation Baking Gals for the recent delivery of cookies to Eric Augustine. I can’t even explain to you how this has really picked up his spirits while deployed. It seems that he has been labeled the cookie man on the ship. This is the first time Eric has been away from home so your thoughts and gifts of cookies has been greatly appreciated. Please tell those other men and women who are involved in this project that the Augustine family has greatly appreciated your tasty treats and thoughts of those who are serving abroad. We keep all of you in our prayers.

Respectfully,

John, Denise and Jamie Augustine

Love You More Than You Know....

That's the title of a new book by Janie Reinart and Mary Anne Mayer. Subtitled Mothers' Stories About Sending Their Sons and Daughters to War, it has the essays of 45 mothers of U.S. service men and women, mostly from Ohio, who open their hearts and share what it feels like when your son or daughter leaves home to fight a war. A portion of the proceeds for sales of this book will be donated to ReMind.org, a Bob Woodruff Foundation initiative and to the Semper Fi Injured Marines Fund.

Gloria Frombach, the mother of our December soldier, Matt, has eloquently told her story. If you click here, it will take you to a link to the book and you can get a free sample of Gloria's essay on pg 44.
Reading these stories gives us insight to the sacrifice families like this are making every day.

A Family Thank You

Here is a thank you letter and pictures we received. I have more to post, but am running out of time!!!!

"With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I'm not sure I officially thanked you for sending a baking package to Jon. He did most certainly receive it and was so thrilled. It really made a difficult time more tolerable. I think the holidays in general were okay there, but the actual Christmas Day had some violence and I think he wasn't really mentally prepared for that.

He was home for his leave in February and it was wonderful to see him.... Thanks so much again for thinking of Jon and I'm so sorry my thanks are so late. If you are interested, I attached his latest email. He's really doing some interesting and different things now. It sure is a different world over there...."

Sincerely,

Wendy

Hello All!

Today I had a couple early missions and I was done with my duty day by 13:00 (1pm). The afternoon off it not only gave me a chance to take a nap but also a chance to think, and I realized I haven't sent an email to everyone in a long time. Ever since getting back to Mahmudiyah after my R&R leave I have sort of gotten into a groove. I rarely know the date or what day of the week it is.

My attachment to Delta Company has been going well. We have some exciting moments, but thankfully we have plenty of dull ones too. Last week I spent a few very long days on an Iraqi Army Compound teaching Iraqi soldiers "Combat Lifesaver" skills. (the Army's phrase for First Aid) I will try to attach some pictures of the classes. The classes went well. The Iraqis were very eager to learn. Trying to teach a group of guys how to initiate an IV is pretty interesting when the majority of them did not even know what a vein was before we began! They did a good job though, and not too much blood was shed as we practiced on each other.

Most of my missions are humanitarian in nature. We go out and help (re)establish businesses. Ranging from fish farms to little corner markets. We are literally throwing tons of money at these people. Honestly it can be a bit aggravating watching all these funds get handed out knowing that our own country is in a financial crisis. There are times I feel we are doing some real good over here, but a lot of the time I get the feeling we are pushing democracy onto a nation of people who don't really want it.

Today we went to a chicken farm. We were escorting a couple guys from the USDA so they could teach the farmers how to vaccinate their chicks. It is one of the many businesses we are funding. It is interesting and boring at the same time. I never would have thought I would be pulling security on a farm for 3 hours while we were dehydrating chicks so they would drink their medicine. It is up there with watching paint dry. Strange days! While the chicks drank their medicine we took a break and accepted Chai Tea from the farm owner's children. This happens a lot at the homes and businesses we visit. They love their Chai Tea here! Iraqis usually drink it out of the saucer. I drink it from the glass. I just don't want to end up wearing half of it....

Love,
Jon

Plain Dealer writes...

...about our team!

Come join us!

We are in the process of sending baked goods to our March soldier, stationed in Afghanistan. If you would like to join in, once or on an ongoing basis, send an email to the address listed on the left!

Letters From Soldiers and Families

Happy New Year!
Thank you so much for your support to our soldiers! Y'all are amazing!
It is our pleasure to be able to bring a little bit of home to someone so far away from family.

I want to share some letters and comments we have received in the last month....

"As A mother of a son in Iraq this holiday season, I just wanted to say Thank You for what you are doing. Have a wonderful holiday!"

Cindy

"thanks ....
again for your COOKIES
for Doug last month. God Bless you !" Laurie and Jim

Dear Baking gals,

This is Doug Weigelt writing you back to thank you all for the cookies and
thoughtfulness to go out of your way to think of us.  We really enjoyed your
cookies and everybody here wants to thank you for all that your are doing in
your efforts to support the troops.  The cookies were tremendous and your
generosity does not go unnoticed.  I would personally like to thank you and if
there is anything you would like me or the guys to do for you back home just let
me know.  I am sorry that it has taken so long for me to get back to you, it was
unfair to you ladies for me to wait this long to respond, but as you are aware
I'm sure, we don't always have the time to get online as often as we would like.
But take care and again thank you very much for your cookies and thoughts.
sincerely,
Doug Weigelt

Thank you very much for all of the great cookies. I have to tell you, that was one of the most impressive things I have seen during my 15 months in Iraq. I have never seen so many cookies...Everyone here enjoyed them and it meant a lot to us that there are people at home that are thinking of us. I hope you have a great holiday and I can't thank you enough for what you are doing.
Sincerely,
Matt Frombach

We continue to bake each month for a different soldier. If you would like to join our effort, please drop me an email at zimmOhio@aol.com. I will email you when we are baking. You can bake one time or each month.
I want to wish each of you a healthy and prosperous New Year.