2009 totals - MARINES WIN!

Thanks to all who participated and or contributed to this campaign. A lot of technology for our wounded heroes will be purchased because of you!

Total brought in for all teams, including donations not designated to any team: $113,124.90
By team -
Air Force: $15,662.17
Army: $32,758.80
Marines: $43,060.89
Navy: $19,108.04
General donations: $2,535.00

Another successful campaign!

2009 marks another huge success for our 5th annual Soldiers' Angels Project Valour-IT internet fundraiser. We broke the 100K mark and had a smooth campaign from Oct 26th through November 11th. The official tallies will be available next week as all the checks sent in are calculated into the totals.

This was a team effort and we want to thank all who participated and donated. 100% of your donation go towards Soldiers' Angels Project Valour-IT go directly to the purchase and delivery of technology for the wounded. This fund will need additional support throughout the year as the need for our wounded grows.

Soldiers' Angels hopes you will continue to support us by adopting a hero, joining any of our 30 teams, by donating through the CFC fund,from your generous contributions and/or by just spreading the angel word. Together, wingtip to wingtip, we can accomplish so much for our heroes who put heir lives on the line for us.

Video Contest Winners

We would like to take this time to thank all those who created and submitted videos for the first annual Valour-IT video contest. We hope that all participants will promote these on their blogs as we enter into the final days of our fundraiser. Congratulations to our winners!!!

1st place Project Valour-IT: Help for our heroes from No Sheeples Here

This winner will receive a voice-activated laptop given in their name and a $75 gift certificate to the Soldiers'Angels store.

2nd place NEVER GOING TO BE ALONE from the Watch Cat

This Winner will receive a Wii donated in their name and $50 gift certificate for the Soldiers' Angels store.

3rd place How to Donate Video from the Greyhawks at Mudville Gazette.

This winner will receive a handheld GPS donated in their name and a $25 gift certificate for the Soldiers' Angels store.

Valour-IT Continues

Soldiers' Angels leadership and the Valour-IT team leaders discussed today's events and decided that the Valour-IT competition will continue through November 11th as originally planned.

We remember that though we enjoy friendly competition, underneath it all we are always united in spirit and support of each other.

For those who are interested in particularly supporting those affected by the massacre at Fort Hood, Soldiers' Angels is developing plans.

Jump on board Project Valour-IT

Seems it is all the rage to have an armed force Soldiers' Angels Valour-IT thermometer widget on a blog or website right now! It is not too late to join in, the fundraiser does not end until November 11th.

1.There are a variety of items up for Valour-IT auction. Go bid on one of them!

2. Go register your blog or website to join one of the 4 teams and get your own thermometer widget.

3. Make a donation - no matter how small. Remember 100% of proceeds go directly to purchase & delivery of technology to our wounded heroes.

4. Tell everyone you know about Project Valour-IT! Create a viral email or put on you Facebook wall.

5. Buy a fabulous gift for yourself or for someone for the holidays from one of the businesses supporting Valour-IT. Or register for the opportunity to win a beautiful Christmas quilt.

Though either Army, Air Force, Navy/Coast Guard, or Marines will be declared the winner of the competition and will gain bragging rights until next year, our wounded heroes are the winners! Go Project Valour-IT!

All-in-One for the New Week

We're gearing up for another full week of fundraising, and lots of exciting things are happening! Here's your one-stop shop for Valour-IT activities, resources, and info...

Activities

• Auctions: We're over 30 items now, and more will be added later today. There is some fantastic stuff in there!
• Video Contest: Win the opportunity to have a Valour-IT item donated in your name, as well as a gift certificate to the Angels Store, which can be used to buy a care package for a deployed soldier (among other things).
• Percentages: Supportive companies and individuals are offering a percentage of their sales (up to 100%) to Valour-IT.
• New Media: Don't forget to share Twitter and Facebook with those who use them. Squidoo can be helpful, too.
  

Resources

• Valour-IT in Action: Soldiers' Angels recently brought Valour-IT to Brooke Army Medical Center. It includes pictures!--A great resource for telling people about the project's impact.
• FAQ: Answers to commonly asked questions about the fundraiser.
• Twitter and blogging feeds: The latest news and chatter. If you want the code to put them on your blog, email beths@soldiersangels.org or holly@triogroto.com.
  
• Valour-IT Google Group: Get all the latest info and answers. Anyone can join.
• This blog: It's a tremendous resource of tips and stories about Valour-IT that an be very inspirational/motivational to donors. Take a look around!
• Challenges: Keep your eyes open for people/companies offering to match donations for a team. The Marine Team has used this tool to great effect.

Noteworthy posts:

• Halloween: CS Navy makes a great point.
• Courage: Cassandra draws on some fantastic stories of the kinds of people for which Valour-IT was created.
• Impact: The blessings of Valour-IT from the perspective of a wounded warrior's wife.

As you find other noteworthy posts, please share them on your blog, the Valour-IT group, or here in comments.

Marines, you may be in first, but knowing the Army's history in this competition, I hope you're prepared! Army, are you really going to let them beat you? Navy and Air Force, are you going to let the Army and Marine teams run away with this?

We've got a full head of steam now, and great resources to make this a huge success... Let's go!

Giving a Percentage

A number of business people have stepped up to provide their unique support to Valour-IT. From jewelry to books to clothing, people are doing what they can to help wounded warriors reconnect as they recover.

Vision-Strike-Wear.Com, designers and printers of military t-shirts for domestic and deployed military units and Bouhammer, leading milblogger, have teamed up to develop Twitter T-shirts for Valour-IT. The design features a Twitter bird in camouflage and a military style helmet, with a variety of catch phrases. All sales of the Twitter t-shirts are being donated to Valour-IT. Tood Gilbert of Vision-Strike-Wear.com says, "It is our pleasure to be able to participate and support this more-than-worthy cause."

Military wife and entrepreneur Andi Hurley has been a longtime supporter of Soldiers' Angels. When she opened her store, MilitaryMatters.org, she designed a necklace especially for Soldiers' Angels and pledged to donate a portion of her profits to the organization. During the Valour-IT fundraiser (October 26 to November 11), she will donate $2 from ANY Military Matters purchase and $5 from each Soldiers’ Angels necklace to Valour-IT.

From October 26 through November 11 Author Judy Pugh is donating 10% of the cost of each sale of her inspirational new book, Reporting for Doodie, to Valour-IT. Reporting for Dootie is her story of caring for her grandson while both her daughter and son-in-law were deployed, and her discovery of “a secret vault filled with friends I never knew I had. I found myself in the midst of an unexpected divorce, facing the possible loss of my home and making a major career change when someone, somewhere, took a look at my proverbial ‘plate’ and thought… ‘there’s a little corner of her plate that isn’t taken, she needs a toddler to care for…oh, and at the same time, let’s throw in a rarely-heard-of medical condition to make her life even more interesting.’”

Grammy Awarding-winning singer-songwriter James Hooker is also pitching in with a beautiful donation. He is in the final stages of recording a new arrangement of his powerful Hangin’ Out with the Boys, which will be included in a new CD by the same name. When it is complete, he will be donating all proceeds from downloads of the songs through December 31 to Project Valour-IT. You can watch a video of the original Hangin’ Out with the Boys below.