SW Community Troop Support

You are all invited to attend!

Sedro-Woolley Community Troop Support

Regular Business Meeting

Tuesday, May 28^th at 5:00 pm

at the Eagles Club

1000 Metcalf Street

Sedro-Woolley

Please join us for all or part of our meeting!   We have a lot of topics on the agenda, specifically the 4^th Annual Yellow Ribbon Motorcycle Poker Run, scheduled for Saturday, July 27^th.

We are in need of sponsors and donations for the Yellow Ribbon Motorcycle Poker Run.  Gift certificates, home décor, sports equipment, craft supplies, garden items, are just a few ideas to consider when asking your contacts and businesses in your community.  Cash is OK too!  (No alcoholic beverages though….)  We have many ways to show donors our appreciation of their support…based on the type of donation we receive.  Please feel free to contact coordinator@swcommunitytroopsupport.com if you have any questions!

There are many volunteer opportunities we need to fill, including…

* Secretary to the Board of Directors

* Biker Bag Coordinator

* Yellow Ribbon Motorcycle Poker Run Volunteers

….these are great ways to invest your time with even greater rewards!…all in support of such a good cause…remembering our troops by sending our fabulous Christmas Care Packages!

So, if you have a friend, family member, or co-worker you think would enjoy participating in activities that support our troops, attending our upcoming Business Meeting will give them a chance to become acquainted with the variety of activities we have planned!

Our RouteMaster, Jim Weist, has officially announced this year’s Yellow Ribbon Poker Route!  It will be a lovely ride!

After registration in Sedro Woolley, our participants will cruise up Hwy 20 to Concrete, meander over to Darrington, then make their way over to Sound Harley-Davidson in Marysville.  After that stop, they are on to Stanwood, Conway and off to Edison through the scenic Skagit Valley flats, with the final destination at Riverfront Park in Sedro Woolley for fun, food and PRIZES!  Preview the route by clicking here  http://binged.it/15De4oN

Remember!  The first 50 who register and pay get a super cool gift bag (with a FREE family pass to Skagit Speedway inside amongst other treasures)!  

For more info about the event and to register click the yellow ribbon!

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY! Sedro-Woolley Community Troop Support, a nonprofit organization active in Skagit and Whatcom Counties, has a volunteer opening for Secretary to the Board of Directors. The Secretary takes minutes at our business meetings and volunteers in other capacities. SWCTS sends care packages to troops from our area serving overseas during the Christmas Holiday Season. Please submit your letter of interest or inquiries to coordinator@swcommunitytroopsupport.com.

 
Please consider helping by donating something for the prize table.  Having lots of prizes from the community is helping this event to grow and can be a great way to promote your business or service! Tools, home decor, gift certificates, gift baskets, crafts, artwork, motorcycle related items…everything and anything (with the exception of alcohol) is fantastic!

In addition to the Free Family Passes donated by Skagit Speedway, we are seeking items to include in our super special gift bags! 50 small, quality items, such as pens, bottled water, key chains, gift certificates, snacks or other logoed items work great!  Our participants are traveling by motorcycle so large or breakable items are not recommended.

Prize Table/Gift Bag donations can be dropped off at Janicki Industries on Metcalf in Sedro-Woolley or Cedar Creek Lumber in Burlington.

The public is invited to join us at the after party at Riverfront Park in Sedro Woolley from 12:00 – 4:00 pm.  There will live music, food and bike show (more details to come on that)!  We will also be collecting care package items for this year’s Christmas Campaign at this event!!!

Volunteers are needed on the day of the event!

Please e-mail coordinator@swcommunitytroopsupport.com to be added to the volunteer list!

Thank you for your support of our troops!

Register Now!

Hi All!

Our request before the Sedro-Woolley City Council meeting to become a city sanctioned event received unanimous approval from the City Council!  As a result, we will have complimentary use of the Riverfront Park facilities for our Yellow Ribbon Motorcycle Poker Run.  Marilyn made a wonderful presentation that received applause and accolades for the work we do on behalf of our troops.  Way to go!

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We are now in the process of soliciting Prize Table Gifts for the poker run as well as quality items for our Poker Run Gift Bags (need a quantity of 50 pieces).  This is a great way to promote your product or service while supporting our troops!  The possibilities are endless!

For those of you who brought in gifts last year, I would like to ask you to connect with your donors for any support they can provide us this year.  I believe it is important that we develop relationships with those donors by having the same SWCTS volunteer contact them, rather than having a new face knocking on their door. Please let me know who you will be contacting, as well as the information on any donations you are able to secure, so we can keep track!

If you need assistance, I am happy to follow through on donation requests!  Our Yellow Ribbon Motorcycle Poker Run has gained a reputation for not only offering a gorgeous ride through our countryside, but having gifts that acknowledge how much we value our rider participation.

Thanks for all you do!

Cassie Freer

coordinator@swcommunitytroopsupport.com

President / Coordinator

SW Community Troop Support

SAVE THE DATE – Our 4th Annual Yellow Ribbon Motorcycle Poker Run will be the LAST SATURDAY  in JULY, and we have confirmation that Paid ‘N Full is going to be playing at the after party which is being held at Riverfront Park in Sedro-Woolley!  It is going to be AWESOME !!!

Click to Find Paid ’N Full on Facebook!  “Like” them to show your support!

2012 Christmas Care Package Project

With 230 packages mailed to our troops serving overseas during the holiday season, the SWCTS 2012 Christmas Care Package Project set yet another record in the number of recipients who received our Christmas Care Packages.   While finishing up packing these care packages, an Army medic appealed to SWCTS for a donation of a couple boxes of food and hygiene items to distribute to our troops during his trips to remote outposts in Afghanistan.  SWCTS responded by sending 30 boxes of Christmas Care Package items, including a generous donation of 150 packages of Girl Scout trail mix.  Although this request came after near completion of our scheduled Christmas mailing, sufficient funds were available to pay for this unexpected postage expense.   Our Army Medic, dressed as Santa, conveyed to us that this “Santa Project” touched the lives of approximately 500 of our troops. The Army medic’s wife conveyed to SWCTS that more than 500 people were likely touched by the boxes sent to Afghanistan for the Santa Project.

Reassignment of SWCTS Projects & Board of Directors Elected for 2013

Marilyn Pineda, founder and former President since 2004, has graciously agreed to serve as SWCTS Secretary until another volunteer is identified for this Board position.   In addition, Marilyn will assist in coordinating the planning of the annual Yellow Ribbon Motorcycle Poker Run.  Marilyn is applauded for her years of insightful leadership and devotion!  Nominations for Secretary can be e-mailed to coordinator@swcommunitytroopsupport.com.

SWCTS Board of Directors for 2013 are as follows:

• Cassie Freer, President
• Kym Kelly, Vice President
• Kay Brown, Treasurer
• Marilyn Pineda, Interim Secretary and Operations Consultant
• Carol Torsett, Member, Board of Directors
• Lynda Balise, Member, Board of Directors
• Sylvia Mangold, Member, Board of Directors

Thank you to all who will serve on our board this year, as well as those volunteers who stepped up to volunteer for the following duties!!

• Lynda Balise and Lynn Torsett, Public Relations
• Jan Smith, Christmas Care Package recipient mailing list coordination.  The mailing list has been faithfully maintained by Tammie Werner, who we thank for her many years of volunteer service in this capacity!
• Jim Wiest, Yellow Ribbon Motorcycle Poker Run route coordinator
• Fred Wahlgren of the American Legion Riders Post 43, American Legion Liaison

The biggest project already on our minds is this year’s Yellow Ribbon Motorcycle Poker Run.  It is continuing to grow at a wonderful rate, and we are already started in canvassing the community for as many “Prize Table” items and event sponsors as possible.  Desired prize table items are limited only by imagination!  Biker accessories, home decorating, pet care, tools, children’s toys/games, jewelry, Gift Certificates for services – anything at all that may be fun or useful for our biker men and women!

SAVE THE DATE! 

This year’s Yellow Ribbon Poker Run will be held on

Saturday, July 27th

The success of SWCTS Christmas Care Packages, as well as mailings made in other times of the year, is largely dependent on the success of this major fundraiser.  Anything you can do to help us with this fundraiser is going to directly affect the growth of this annual event and the continued operations of SW Community Troop Support!

And, thank YOU for helping to support our troops!

Happy New Year, fellow Troop Support supporters!

Just wanted to pass on a quick update on the success of our 2012 Christmas Care Package Campaign, which developed an incredible ENCORE feature!

We had budgeted and prepared inventory to send 200 care packages to 100 overseas Military personnel recipients. It was a tall order, but fundraisers and donations from the community generously met the demand!

THEN, to top it off, a very special request from an Army medic in Afghanistan came through to us.  He had obtained a Santa suit, and was hoping to procure as many care package items as possible so that he could carry a Santa-Pack to all his stops as he made his rounds to all of the field area locations that are his responsibility to cover.

So we rolled up our sleeves, and as always, the Lord blessed us with an abundance of last minute goodies to be applied to this special Santa Project.

While we were trying to find a way to get a few more things to send to the medic for the Santa Project, we received a call from a Campfire leader living south of Everett.  They had sold 150 containers of Campfire candy coated peanuts and trail mix that were intended to be donated for use in care packages for overseas troops – BUT they had no means to send them, and could we help them out?

COULD WE?!!  It was – Literally – down to the wire last minute efforts to get these additional goods mailed out with everything else we were trying to send. We did some more double checking on our available funds for the already higher than estimated cost of postage for our 2013 mailing, and YES! We could come up with the postage to add these great goodies to the rest of what we had for the Santa Project!  So, in ADDITION to the 200 boxes we were already sending, we were able to send 30 boxes to the Army Medic that was trying to play Santa in Afghanistan.  For reference, postage is $13.45 per box – but postage is only about 1/2 of our expense for the care packages that we send.

This means that everything YOU did to help SW Community Troop Support in 2012 with fundraisers and donations that made the extra volume of this year’s Campaign possible, and reaching who knows how many more soldiers away from home on Christmas.

YOU helped us make a difference for American military personnel on the other side of the world!

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to seeing you again in 2013  ;o)

* * * PS > > >  As always, this year’s Yellow Ribbon Motorcycle Poker Run will be held on the LAST SATURDAY IN JULY, which falls on July 27, 2013.  We are still working on where it will start, the route and other details, but we can tell you that the PARTY at the end of the ride will be held at RIVERFRONT PARK in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, and we  have the AMPHITHEATER and large covered kitchen area reserved for our use!

PLEASE mark it on your calendar, and let us know if you can help us with any details such as volunteers; a live band that would be willing to donate their time and talent for Troop Support efforts; food for lunch to feed the Troop Support masses; etc., etc., etc. ! As we do every year, we are already working to make THIS year’s Poker Run even greater than the year before!

Cheers !!!

Marilyn Pineda <><

Coordinator

Greetings fellow Troop Support supporters!

All our Christmas Care Packages have been packed and on Tuesday morning, November 27 at 8:15 a.m.  a band of volunteers arrived at the SWCTS warehouse to move 194 boxes from the assembly tables into vehicles for delivery to the Sedro Woolley and Lyman Post Offices! And we still have extra boxes ready to mail in response to names we expect to receive in the coming weeks.

Due to the generosity of the community at large, as well as the hard work performed this past year by Community Troop Support volunteers, every one of our overseas recipients are going to receive some of the most incredible Christmas boxes SWCTS has had the privilege to assemble! A bountiful amount of  health and hygiene items, snacks, boot socks, hand warmers, candy, cards and letters from school children, and the VERY special SWCTS music CD, “Medal of Honor,” which provides uplifting music and verbal greetings from the community to the recipient Troops!   If you don’t have one of these CD’s yet, you are definitely missing out.  Our surplus inventory of CD’s are available for donations of $10 or more.

We also had an additional project in our Christmas Campaign this  year , dubbed the Santa Project!  Turns out that one of our recipients, an Army medic in Afghanistan, had obtained a Santa suit and wanted to play the role of Santa as he made his medic runs out in the field camps.  Rest assured, we were able to send him a GENEROUS supply of goodies, including 175 containers of Campfire peanut candies and trail mix that were donated to us at the last minute from people in Everett while we were scrambling for things to send to Santa! It stretched our postage budget, but we were able to make it happen!

So there you go – another SWCTS Christmas Campaign NEARLY completed!

I say nearly because , as we do every year , we created a few extra Christmas packages for those names that inevitably trickle in between now and mid-December.

So PLEASE let us know if you have a friend or loved one serving overseas this Christmas!  It is our privilege to send these encouraging greetings from the community to them as they are away from home.

God bless you, and thank you for helping us Support Our Troops!

Marilyn Pineda <><

Coordinator, SW Community Troop Support

SW Community Troop Support Coordinator, Marilyn Pineda, presents Fillipo Thompson with his signed David Haggerbaumer print!

Thank you to all that purchased and sold tickets on our behalf! We were able to raise some extra funds for postage this year!