Team Army just broke their goal of $25K today, the last day of the event. Other teams are... lagging.
I get all the casualty notifications in email. Those are only the fatalities, but they arrive almost every day... ping... ping... ping. The Talibs have quit focusing on vehicles with their IEDs - they're aiming for the individual warriors. Our gear and our medical system saves people who in earlier wars would have died. But that doesn't mean they're whole. That's where Project Valour-IT steps up.
We've been doing this for years. It's the apotheosis of how things like this ought to be done, in a sense. Some years back, Chuck Ziegenfuss, a soldier, got introduced to an IED the hard way. Losing part of his hand, a good chunk of his hearing, and, oh, yeah - Chuck literally gave his left nut for the cause. Not many of us can say that. But it needs saying. Chuck's a blogger, too, who writes over at TC Override. And like the troop in the DBS comic above, in the second panel... well, Chuck had some issues blogging. He met up with a Soldiers Angel, known to us here at Castle Argghhh! as Fuzzybear Lioness. And between Chuck's drug-addled musings and Fuzzybee's casting about, Project Valour-IT was born. Voice Activated Laptops for OUR Injured Troops.
The VA tries hard, but when it comes to rehab, they're still trying to break free of the agricultural/industrial paradigm into which they were born as an agency. And like any governmental entity, shifting Leviathan to a new course - in this case, getting them into the realities of the late 20th Century (gotta take baby steps, work with me here) - and the fact that the generation fighting this war is a digitally connected generation, well, the loss of the ability to use that connection actually hampers their emotiional recovery - not to mention shuts off a huge section of the job market.
Some people are content to have rallies, lobby congresspersons, write letters to the editor about how the gov't ought to be taking care of things. We do that. But the big difference between us and many others is we also want to lead the way, and provide a path forward for Leviathan. And rather than wait for Leviathan to figure it out, and coerce money from people via taxes to make it work - we chose to instead abuse you and coerce you directly to donate to this project as we coached the VA on how to do it, and why it was important. And, of course, we put our money where our mouth is.
And this way - you know where your money is going. It's going to guys like Ricky H.
Ricky H. was hit with an IED in Afghanistan in May and suffered a stroke while recovering. Here's what he thinks of his new laptop from Valour-IT...
Thanks to you - we've given out over 4000 laptops to wounded warriors - at no cost to them. That took about 2.5 million dollars to do - which you have given, in increments from $5 to $5000. That's the nice thing about internet fundraising - we're happy to take a little from a lot of people - and get 'er done.
We've done this as a service-based competition for years. But I find as I age, I'm less about the competition and more about the Rickys. I don't care which team you give to. Just reach in and find some change and give a tax deductible (you'll get an IRS letter for your returns) chunk 'o change to Project Valour-IT. Tell 'em the Armorer of Argghhh! sent you. Especially if you donate via any of the Sea Service Teams... if you have given already - thank you. If not - click that link and donate... and donate to one of the other services. Army won the race, it's time to leave no service behind...
Read the complete post at http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2011/07/project_valouri_1.html
Posted
Jul 14 2011, 11:17 AM
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