Page 13 - ESA IC News March

Hope for Heroes Chairman
Deana Walters, Arizona
dwaltesa@att.net

Hello to all!
Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. We are almost through the
winter months and looking forward to spring. That is the time of year when
our flowers are beginning to sprout up and birds are back chirping and new life begins again. It
is also time for us to look back on what we have done or not done for our hero’s this year; those
who are serving to protect us and our freedoms. It is a good time to reach out to our communities
and see what we can do for our veterans. I am in hopes that if you have not had a project, that
all of you will put on your thinking caps and come up with something before our year is over. This
can be your new beginnings for spring, and I do hope my email box will be full of the great things
that all of you have done or planning to do for our hero’s yet this year! Please let me know what
you have done or planning to do!

For those of you doing shipping to overseas, please check your local post office to make sure
you have the correct forms. Looks like they have a new form – 2976-R April 2016. A couple of
helpful hints. Make sure you always mark it as a “gift” and check “treat as abandon” and in the
description indicate “snacks, books, candy, hygiene items” and if mailing coupons just indicate
“manufacture coupons”. In senders address you can indicate in business name “ESA Hope for
Hero’s”. ALWAYS leave email and phone number blank. If you have any questions, please let
me know or ask at your post office. Thanks to Chip Shaffer in Illinois for the heads up.

Have any of you checked with the members in your state or even in your chapter to see if they
have a family member deployed? You know you could ask for donations to fill the box and all
chip in to pay the postage and ship the box off. It is an easy way to do something for our military
who are overseas. As one of the members of the Hope for Hero’s committee in Arizona we did
do such a thing for our January meeting. OMG as they say, “ask and you shall receive”. It was
unbelievable. You can see from the couple of pictures shown how giving we all are. I do believe
we received enough to fill 10 boxes. I was in hope to just get a couple of boxes. And as I was
giving my report, I asked that they pitch me a quarter to help pay for postage. Unaware of what
was happening, they passed a basket to collect shipping money and once again it was
unbelievable how giving they were. I am sure we collected sufficient funds to cover the postage.
Once again thank you my Arizona sisters and brothers for being so generous and helping our
troops have a little touch and love from home.

Also, during our meeting, I had the privilege to recognized 2 of our members who gave back in
a big way. Mary Jane Hickey from Tucson is in a choir call the Southern Arizona Women’s Chorus
and she has had two great events in the past 2 years. This choir was the only one from the USA
to sing at the D-Day celebrations at Normandy Beach and they also got to march in the parade
and they sang in the Cathedrals in Paris. Then they also were invited to the 75 Anniversary of
th
Pearl Harbor. As Mary Jane said,” it has been two opportunities of a life time.”

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