Cheap international calls - Prepaid phone cards

Webcam software

Cheap international calls from USA & Canada


	Home Calling rates News Card info FAQ

Families collect packages for troops
Families collect packages for troops

By Michelle Tan
mean(at)stcloudtimes(dot)com
The families of a Minnesota National Guard unit are running a donation drive to send care packages to their loved ones in Iraq.
The family readiness group for Blackjack Company B, 1st Battalion, 194th Armor will be at the St. Cloud Armory on Friday and Saturday to collect items such as socks, sheets and pillowcases, batteries, baby wipes and snacks.
The care packages will be sent to the 150 soldiers of the 1-194th. The soldiers, about half of whom are based in St. Cloud and Sauk Centre, arrived earlier this month in Iraq for a yearlong deployment northeast of Baghdad.
Donations to the group are tax-deductible. Everything the group receives goes to support the soldiers and their families, said Julie Gaetz, of the Blackjack family readiness group.
Family readiness groups, formerly known as family support groups, are nonprofit organizations made up of family members, volunteers and soldiers of a particular unit to provide support and help to each other during deployments.
The donation drive will be from 5-7 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-noon Saturday at the armory. Family members will package and mail the packages next weekend.
Another family readiness group for the 1-194th is also running a donation drive. The group for Company C from Sauk Centre is working to collect money for the soldiers to use to pay for calls home, group coordinator Karin Jacobson said.
The soldiers can't use calling cards because their base is in a remote location, Jacobson said. They are able to buy minutes to use a satellite phone. The soldiers pay 4 cents a minute under the plan, Jacobson said.
"Four cents a minute is a pretty good deal," she said. "I've had contact with some of the soldiers and morale is pretty good."
Donations also are being accepted for cot organizers, Jacobson said. The organizers are made from camouflage cloth and are designed to hold a soldier's belongings so those items aren't on the floor or in the sand. The unit needs about 150 cot organizers worth $35 each, Jacobson said.