Santa's Elves have been very busy...

Well, it has happened... and sooner than we anticipated. The great Knitted Helmet Liner goal has been met! Woo hoo!

I know... amazing isn't it? Well, not when you consider the remarkable people we have connected with the 2/2 family. Their reach is far and wide and incredibly productive as well. Roxy has an explanation below of what has transpired to bring us to this point. A heartfelt "thank you" to each and every knitter experienced and novice, who heard our cry for help and took up their needles (and knitting lessons in many cases) on behalf of the Marines and Sailors of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines. We are so grateful. It's especially exciting because now we can focus all that excitement and fabulous determination on collecting the other items on our list for our "boys" Christmas packages. It's great to see the plan coming together.

And now a word from Roxanne:

Great News: There is this company that I found called Citizen Sam. They have agreed to supply us with the rest of the helmet liners that we are short of. The founder of this company has been sending helmet liners to the troops for about 4 years now. She is the mother of two Marines herself. She has very strict guidelines for the liners. They must be 100% wool, and must be knitted. So we no longer have to worry about whether or not we will have all of the helmet liners needed. We will meet goal for this. We can now maybe shift our focus on other items such as socks, wisps and wipes. So whether we need 100 helmet liners or 500 helmet liners, she will provide these to our guys for us.

The HugsProjectKC gave me 200 of helmet liners.......HOWEVER, THEY WERE NOT THE SAMES ONES WE ARE SENDING. They were just skull caps basically, so I gave them back and told them we would not be able to use them. I did sincerely thank them for their efforts however. Laila is still committing to the 500 hugs and 500 kisses. Our guys will be able to use these as a way to keep cool, or they can be used as hand warmers also. She is still doing the care package drive for our items. I should know more about what she has collected come the Oct 17 meeting.

So there you have it. Mission accomplished. Now that we are shifting our focus to the other items on the list, please take a minute to refresh your memory regarding what we are collecting. Items are listed on the left sidebar (as well as a list of how many we have collected so far of each). There is a donation letter and list available there to print and hand out or to send by email to get the word out. There is also a thank you letter there you can send from the 2/2 family to those you know who have responded to your request to donate items.

Thanks again to all who have knitted and encouraged others to do so. You have been an inspiration to me and so many others as well. Please go ahead and send your completed liners to Roxanne Robertson at the address in the left-hand sidebar (also on the donation letter).

Our deadline is a little over a month away. I hope all of Santa's little Elves won't mind changing focus and staying busy collecting the rest of the items on the list. I look forward to seeing what you all will do for our Marines and Sailors in the days to come!