As many of you know, I’ve been working on a project since August to raise money to buy teddy bears for kids at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, California.   My original goal was to give 250 bears to the kids for Christmas.   At the beginning of this week, I did an interview with KNSD TV (NBC) in San Diego.  After the news segment ran, MSN.com picked up the story and donations started pouring in.  Within a day, I had raised enough to buy 1700 bears!  I could hardly believe it.  Kids were donating $5 and $10, companies were donating larger amounts, and a group of three 8th grade students in Michigan donated their bake sale money.  But today, on Thanksgiving of all days, I received a special donation from three soldiers stationed in Iraq.  They read my story and decided to donate.  I was amazed but it meant even more when I received this email from one of the guys.  He gave his permission to share it on my blog.  It means a lot!

Remember to thank our military guys.

Jason,

I am Staff Sergeant (name withheld for privacy reasons), curently serving in Iraq.  I saw an article about your donation of teddy bears to kids in the hospital and felt that in addition to a donation I should write you this email.

Hopefully you know already how incredible your achievments have been thus far.  The fact that you have chosen to give back to others less fortunate than yourself is what makes all of it truly extraordinary.  Your friends and family are no doubt proud of you beyond words.  I wanted you to know that others are proud of you as well.

I, as well as my fellow soldiers, are often asked why we are willing to do the things that we do.  While most everyone has a different answer, I believe I can speak for most when I say that one of the primary reasons is in order to protect the American way of life.  In this current age filled with people looking out only for themselves, or expecting things from their country that they have neither earned nor deserve, it is refreshing to see someone carving their own path while giving of themselves at the same time.

Many adults in your shoes would concentrate all of their effort into their profit margin without a thought for others less fortunate than themselves.  I can’t tell you how glad I and my teammates are to see that the American spirit is alive and well in our younger generation.  Please keep up the good work.  I will keep you and your family in my prayers.  My teammates and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.  Take care.

Respectfully,