The uncertain weather is not only confusing all of us this year but also frustrating my garden. My fruit trees are prematually blooming and bulbs are making buds. As the sun comes high during the day, the temperature goes up to make us to believe we are in summer; and as the sun goes down, the temperature comes down to freezing and lets us know it is still winter.
Although it seems uncertain as to what nature is giving us, I know one certain and sure thing for today, right now. That is: WE, Operation Beanies for Service member (OBFS), collected and shipped over 50,000 beanies to our troops and VA hospitals during the last 4 years.
Our organization grew to over 1,000 Beanie Angels in 32 states.
I remember how I started and how it grew to these numbers. Although I am having a hard time acknowledging our accomplishment myself, it is true. It is hard to comprehend, just throwing numbers at you, but when we shipped 10,000 beanies on December 19, 2006 we took pictures with 80 boxes lined up in front of our headquarters. Please look at the picture below and multiple this by 5 times. It will give you the idea of 50,000 beanies.
Each box contains 125 beanies mixed by color, crocheted and knitted. A letter is enclosed explaining who is OBFS and why we are doing this. Ann Thomas and Barbara Dye make sure to sort and mix beanies for each box and prepare it for shipping. Each box looks exactly the same all the time. Our artist, Lloyd Jones, created a poster with our Logo and a message saying “Another shipment of hand made beanies from OBFS” and we tape this beside the address label.
Sometimes the military picks up at our Huntington Beach headquarters. Here is a picture with Cpl. Palmer of Camp Pendleton when he picked up 4,000 beanies from OBFS on February 10,2006.
2-10-2006 Cpl.Palmer and 11 Beanie Angels
Sometimes we Beanie Angels get tired and need good helping hands. We received a lot of help from Boy Scout Troop 568 in Huntington Beach with scout master, Gregory Adnams. They did the jobs flawlessly with ease and smiles that made all of us very proud.
Boy Scout Troop 568 HB with Gregory Adnams 6-30-2007
These were delivered to the address in Iraq that was given through our volunteers.
A typical thank you note we have received:
Miki and Operation Beanies for Service Members
I would like to take this time to say thank you for the support you are giving to the uniformed service members who are spending time away from their loved ones. Our transition team consists of Marines, Sailors, Homeland Defense Agents and DynCorp personnel. We were all very pleasantly surprised when we received your package. We have selected beanies for wear and will be using them when the weather gets colder. I have attached a photo of our team wearing the beanies we have selected.
Please forward this picture and our thanks to all of your volunteers. Their time and efforts are greatly appreciate and bring warm thoughts of home to our team while we are here.
1st Lt Jedra, Joh
POETT Husaybah
On November 2008, Our Beanie Angel # CA-01-102 Lee Yadrick made an arrangement for her son, Coast guard Logistics Officer Dave Yadrick, to pick up and distribute beanies.
And you know now this is how we shipped some of our 50,000 beanies to our troops. I would like you to be very proud of our accomplishment. Some of you think making beanies is a cinch and do not think the value of beanies as I describe as “Unspoilable Homemade Cookies”. Needless to say these cookies are washable as well and made in the USA. Our troops are accepting all of our beanies with open arms and enjoy having our beanies in all over the world. Our beanies bring them lots of smiles and they feel our appreciation and love at the same time. I can also tell you from their notes that we must feel and know their appreciation of our efforts and that should bring us a sense of accomplishment and smiles.
My goal for this year is to collect and ship 20,000 beanies to our troops. This is a tall order but if you can see my touch, please walk beside me and try to achieve it with me. Again, I thank you all for trusting and supporting my goal and I accept all you can give me to achieve this goal of OBFS.
So long for now, please take care of yourself and be happy for all of us Angels.
Alpha Omicron Pi
Operation Beanie
