It was a “One in a Million” year. Unilever sponsored a NASCAR Xfinity Race Car with JR Motorsports and the Adopt-a-Soldier Platoon image raced at Charlotte Motor Speedway May 28. Well, our driver, Justin Allgaier, made it to our Gala, even if only briefly for a few hours, since he had to be in Miami, […]
Mooresville, NC, 26 May — An Adopt-a-Soldier Platoon team of military Veterans and their caregivers/family and a core group of Volunteers spent several days in NC visiting the JR Motorsports Shop, touring a local lake on a dinner cruise and attending the ALSCO 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Xfinity race. The reason? […]
Exciting news – a NASCAR Xfinity race car simulator for the Unilever/Adopt-a-Soldier Platoon Car #7 driven by Justin Allgaier on May 28th at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be visiting the following military bases: So very cool. SSgt Garret K. and his family stopped by the simulator and his daughter drove the car, while at the […]
Hi Lara, Our package from you arrived with our mail push two days ago and I am sorry that I haven’t written sooner. Our mail takes a long time to reach us here in (location redacted) but it is a huge morale boost when it does come through. I am very grateful for your thoughts and all of the supplies that you sent. Whenever I receive a box of supplies I always bring the company together in our CP to open and distribute the treats among the platoons. It goes a long way to making Soldiers’ day when they might not have gotten something from home. Beyond just getting something to snack on or have, these packages remind the Soldiers that there are more people back home than just their immediate family who care about them and appreciate what they are doing; they provide motivation and a drive to do the job.
I hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas. We celebrated in the best way that we could but it is hard to truly get in the spirit of the holidays in an environment like this. We did have a great meal that was a mix of a little American food and local Kurdish food which is very different but delicious in its own way. Mostly, we were happy that all of the Soldiers were safe and at least able to call home and talk with their families as they opened presents.
Also, before I wrote this, I had a cigar with some of the guys in the company who smoke and WHAT A TREAT. Artuero Feuntes are some of my absolute favorites. It was fun to see some of the younger guys who have never had a good cigar before enjoying them. Thank you again for your support, it means a great deal. Thanks, 1SG C”
“Happy New Year, Alan!! And a Merry Christmas too. We received your box with the GREAT selection of cigars today. I’m floored–those are great choices. Thank you!!! I sent an envelope with a command coin in there, hopefully it’ll make it before 2024 (my wife just got 3 letters I sent between Oct and Nov…) Thank you!” from the CO of one of our units on the high seas.
“My name is Matty and I’m a Navy physician working on a task force in (redacted). I’ve been traveling a lot around the continent and recently got back from (redacted) – just in time to see that I had a Christmas present from you!
I wanted to say thank you for the overly generous gifts; these packages are always so thoughtful but I’ve never received a personalized Christmas present on one of them before. Naturally, I spread the wealth and gave a lot of the candy and snacks to my Sailors. But we put the speaker up in our medical space so we can all appreciate music this New Years. And the gift card is so generous – thank you so much. You have made an otherwise lonely Christmas much warmer. I really hope you were able to enjoy the holidays yourself as well.
I work on a small special operations base and we’re not allowed to take pictures anywhere on base here – so the best I can do is attach some random pictures of my time out here. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do to thank you and everyone else involved. Happy New Year!
Very Respectfully, Matty”
(One of our Xmas gift buyers from “Lara’s Crew,” a group of friends one of our Trustees gathers every year, just got this great email from one of our Adoptees!).
