Day 119 - Mind Games

In the May issue of the 150th Engineer Battalion Family Support Group newsletter, we learned Wayne's unit has adopted a school in Iraq.

According to Cpt. Cager, the most efficient and effective way to help Iraqi children is to create sets of School Supply Kits, which will be distributed to each student.

"Each Kit contains basic, badly-needed items that can make a world of difference to a child heading to school," he explains. "Assembling standardized Kits ensures that each child receives the same number of the most needed items, facilitates customs clearance, and relieves our volunteers and soldiers of the time-consuming and labor intensive process of sorting and allocating random donated items. Kits are wildly popular among Iraqis, who often request them."

Capt. Cager suggests each Kit be assembled according to the following list of items. Please enclose NO additional items, and be sure that all items are new and unused. Pack only the listed supplies in a in a 2-gallon sized zipper seal plastic bag.

· One pair of blunt-end scissors (#337642 - $.87 ea)

· One 12-inch ruler with metric markings (#133507 - $.37 ea)

· 12 new pencils with erasers (#107580 - 12/$.68 or #733601 - 72/$2.98)

· One small pencil sharpener (#501833 - $.68)

· One large eraser (#485185 - 3/$1.59)

· One box of colored pencils (Crayons melt in Iraqi heat!) (#274984 - 12 pencils for $2.78)
· One package of notebook paper (#589483 - 150 sheets/$1.20)

· One composition book (#588268 - 100 pages/ $1.74)

· Three folders with inside pockets (#433664 - 10/$3.18)

· One zippered pencil pouch (#434357 - $1.76)

These items, priced from Office Depot's web site, http://www.officedepot.com ,can be assembled for about $12. Add $3 for postage, and the kits run about $15 each.

If you would like to participate, please send me an email, post your email address as a comment on today's blog entry, or call 501-318-8222 for details how to donate.