This is Year Three of a life changing project: Voice Activated Laptops for OUR - Injured Troops.

Note: Please ignore the excess code showing…the donate button still works fine….

The brainchild of an AZ school teacher and an Army Captain blogger who got tagged by and IED, this program has delivered over 1200 laptops to those service members disabled so they cannot type or see.

Dragon Naturally Speaking software is installed, so they can get right to communicating with their units, their family and friends. The testimonies of what this means are pretty remarkable. Usually, the laptop is provided to them as soon as they arrive stateside at one of the major military medical facilities. If not then, then very shortly afterwards. It is theirs to keep, whether their injuries are temporary or permanent.

Each of the last two years, for two weeks leading up to Veteran’s day, we hold a fund drive to collect money for this wonderful cause, which will affect the lives of those we help beyond their service time, and into their civilian life that follows. This year, the drive starts 10/29 and will continue through 11/11/2007.

This is a donation that passes through, 100% to the cost of buying the notebooks. All effort to make this happen is 100% voluntary, there is 0% overhead cost, there is tremendous benefit for the emotional well being of the people who get one of these notebooks, their friends and families and also to the future employers who will see these men and women can do office tasks just like the rest of us.

It is a program, one of many, that Soldiers Angels is running. SA is a 503(c) organization and your donation is a charitable donation for tax purposes.

Not only are donations accepted, the bloggers involved are going to find some items for auctioning off. The site is here.

To satisfy the competitive nature of those who are or once have served, we have split the collections up between the Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy/Coast Guard. That way, “we” can have some fun, poking and prodding each other for our performance (or lack thereof) at our counterparts. I mention this, as I’d request, unless you have some desire like Richard Nixon may have, to place your funds in the Navy/Coast Guard column. That can be done at my blog, Chaotic Synaptic Activity, where the donate button is prominently displayed in the top of the center column.

If you’d like to place your blog/website into the fray, you can join the Navy/Coast Guard Team on my blog (link right under the donate widget), or go here to join up with the “enemy.”

A bulletin board is up to coordinate and otherwise discuss the drive this year.

The ValOUR-IT blog has lots of information, including some testimonials and is here. The school teacher who helped get this rolling has some of her personal stories about delivering laptops and the supporters of the program on her own blog, which is here.

If you ever think that just one person with a vision can’t make a difference, spend a few minutes chasing the links I have provided here, and then know you can do it, too.

Me? I’m just hoping Team Navy/Coast Guard gets to send MEGEN (Most Exhaulted Golden Notebook) on another trip around the country to site Navy related again this coming year….like we did this year after smoking the competition!

Thanks in advance for your support of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, coast guardsman and Marines who have gieven so much to defend us.

Said xformed @ 12:01 am | Permalink   

1. As a member of SA, I just want to say “Thank you sooooo much” for contributing so much to Project Valour-IT!!!

   Comment by Kathy Santiago — 11/6/2007 @ 3:04 pm

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