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Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber thanks ET team member World Wrestling Entertainment for all its support of our service members. |
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Aaron Tippin poses with troops in the Middle East. Tippin took his second Thanksgiving tour with ET group Stars for Stripes to entertain the troops for the holidays. |
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Lake View Terrace, Calif.
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James Miner, a veteran of three military conflicts, and his wife discuss a million dollar grant ET group Serving Those Who Serve received to help assist severely injured veterans. |
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ASY from Coast to Coast and Across the Ocean:
Last week in New York City, Email Troops brought together team members World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and A Million Thanks to help make sure that a very important letter is delivered to service members in Iraq. WWE superstars and divas are preparing to embark on their fourth annual trip to Iraq to visit military men and women stationed overseas and film their special Christmas “Tribute to the Troops.” They will be delivering 20 XBox 360s, video games and accessories to troops so they can play video games with fellow service members and loved ones back home. The WWE personalities will also be delivering Shauna Fleming’s 2.6 millionth letter of appreciation to the troops. The California teen founded A Million Thanks over two years ago with the goal of sending one million letters, but expanded her goal last year with a New Year’s resolution of hitting “2.6 in 2006,” which symbolically represents one letter of thanks for every man and woman in the military. In addition to Shauna’s letter, the WWE is also accepting electronic submissions of notes to the troops through its Web site. The messages will be printed on a special holiday card for the troops that the superstars and divas will take with them to Iraq.
Email Troops team member Stars for Stripes brightened the Thanksgiving holiday for troops stationed overseas with the help of some American recording artists. Country music star Aaron Tippin headlined the tour, participating from November 18th through the 27th and performing his patriotic music in Afghanistan to bring a bit of home to the troops. “Those are the real workin’ men and women, and if I can repay even an ounce of what they are doing for me, my family, and my country…I can’t think of a better thing to do with my time,” said Aaron of his numerous travels to perform for the troops. In the past, Aaron has donated proceeds from his commercial sales to charities supporting Americans affected by terrorist attacks.
James Miner is just one of many veterans Email Troops team member Serving Those Who Serve will be able to assist thanks to a million dollar grant from Countrywide Financial Corporation. Miner, a veteran of three military conflicts, was severely injured while on duty in Iraq in 2003. A sudden sandstorm caused him to fall from the top of a shipping container resulting in paralysis, traumatic brain injury, cortical blindness, hearing loss and memory loss. Serving Those Who Serve, a program of Rebuilding Together, the nation’s largest volunteer home rehabilitation organization, is working to provide modifications and repairs to Miner’s home that will improve accessibility to the home where he lives with his wife, Phon, and their infant daughter Abigail. Countrywide Financial Corporation spokeswoman Mary Jane Seebach said that the million dollar grant to Serving Those Who Serve should allow for the completion of modifications to at least 50 veterans’ homes.
Email Troops team member Qwest and a team of Qwest Pioneers have organized Operation Share in a Minnesota community to send holiday packages to troops deployed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Qwest Pioneers are volunteers who dedicate their time to service projects that support the communities were Qwest employees live and work. Organized by Qwest service order administrator Linda Anderson, Operation Share was started when Anderson’s son was stationed in Macedonia and asked if his mother would be able to send packages to others in his unit who were not receiving mail. Operation Share is sending packages to units in Iraq and Afghanistan related to Qwest Pioneers involved with Operation Share and their communities.
