Help MP help wounded warriors
Today, Thursday, October 28th, we will begin the annual Soldiers’ Angels Valour-IT competition. As you may or may not know, for the first time, MilitaryPundits.com will be a proud member of Team Army for Valour-IT competition. So MilitaryPundits is stepping up to the challenge and hoping that you do too.
WHAT IS VALOUR-IT?
Project Valour-IT began when Captain Charles “Chuck” Ziegenfuss was wounded by an IED while serving as commander of a tank company in Iraq in June 2005.
During his deployment he kept a blog (an online personal diary, opinion forum, or news analysis site-called a milblog or military weblog when written by a servicemember or about military subjects). Captivating writing, insightful stories of his experiences, and his self-deprecating humor won him many loyal readers. After he was wounded, his wife continued his blog, keeping his readers informed of his condition.
As he began to recover, CPT Ziegenfuss wanted to return to writing his blog, but serious hand injuries hampered his typing. When a loyal and generous reader gave him a copy of the Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred software, other readers began to realize how important such software could be to CPT Ziegenfuss’ fellow wounded soldiers and started cast about for a way to get it to them.
“At that time I had no use of either hand. I know how humbling it is, how humiliating it feels. And I know how much better I felt, how amazingly more functional I felt, after Soldiers’ Angels provided me with a laptop and a loyal reader provided me with the software. I can’t wait to do the same, to give that feeling to another soldier at Walter Reed.” -Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss at TC Override (wounded in Iraq)
Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss (Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss’ father), provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries, amputations, eye or brain injuries, at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the ‘Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse.
THE COMPETITION
In order to fund the thousands of laptops we have distributed and need to distribute, we have an annual competition.
Valour-IT’s online fundraising competition begins today! Let’s see who can raise the most money to help reconnect our wounded warriors with the world!
WHAT: Friendly fundraising competition for Valour-IT.
WHEN: October 28th through Veterans Day, November 11th .
WHERE: Based in the blogosphere, spreading everywhere else.
WHY: Because giving wounded warriors with hand and arm injuries access to a computer supports their healing and puts them back in touch with the world.
HOW: Blogger teams will be divided along military branches, with civilians “up for grabs.”
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
I need you to simply blog and email regularly about Valour-IT and the competition with links to the
Team Army donation page
Tell your friends, family and neighbors about Valour-IT. I’ll be providing media, links, and talking points for your Tweets, Facebook posts and blog posts, etc.
The competition is military branch specific and you’ve been drafted to help TEAM ARMY. So click HERE and make your contribution today.
Another option is to purchase something from the Bouhammer Gear Store from October 28th until November 11th and I will donate 100% of the proceeds to Valour-IT. You will get a great looking decal, T-shirt, hat or polo style shirt and they will get some more money to help fund the Valour-IT initiative.
One last way to give and really get something cool is to keep an eye on the You Served Blog and Radio show ebay store starting the 28th of October until the 11th of November. Many in the milblogging community have been working tirelessly to get items donated that can sell there of which 100% of the proceeds will go towards Valour-IT. If the listing does not specify it is going to a specific team (Army, Air Force, Marines, or Navy) then the winner of the item must specify it after they win the auction. There will be new items going up all the time from Oct. 28th until Nov 4th. The items will each be listed for a maximum of seven days.
You can learn more about Project Valour-IT by visiting their main website athttp://soldiersangels.org/project-valour-it.html or check them out on Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=370960114785
Posted on October 28th, 2010 by Bouhammer
Filed under: Other Blogs, Wall of Honor
A very worthy cause!