Operation Baking GALS...

Welcome!! I am so happy that you dropped by to check out this site...and hopefully you will want to join us!

What started out with a single email to a few friends and fellow Foodie Bloggers has had an overwhelming response in just a couple of days!

Here's how it all began in my email:

I have a cousin (though more like a brother since we grew up together) in the Army JAG Corp. He and his wife tried for a long time to have a baby, and finally did in January. The thing is, Daddy got shipped to Iraq in March for 15 months. I have been getting emails from him, all sad, all missing his wife and baby so much. He’s been reading my blog and knows that I bake now and has been hinting that he and the other members of his division could really use some sweet treats to “boost morale.” (Apparently, the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders didn’t do a good enough job there last week.)

Now, I fully intended to make a care package and load it as full as possible. The problem is, I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to bake 5 or 6 things for the troops, the Café, go to work, feed my family AND do chores. I can get one thing done, but how pathetic of a care package would that be?

So, I am looking for some volunteers. Could you maybe bake one thing, seal it up and ship it to him? If we all do this on the same day, maybe he’ll get them all about the same time. Imagine how happy all those homesick troops will be to have homemade goodies!! You can make anything you want, and you really only need to wrap it in plastic and then a freezer bag (with a piece of bread to soak up moisture) or, if you have a vacuum sealer, that would be great. It takes about 7 days for them to get packages, so bear that in mind when choosing something to bake. Cookies of all kinds, bars, even things like trail mix would work well.

If you would please let me know that you are up for the task by emailing me, I would SOOO appreciate it. I would hope that we could all get our packages ready by Tuesday & Wednesday yes, July 29 & 30). Then if you would be willing to take a picture of the baked good and email it to me, what I will do is make a big post on my blog linking your site and your sweet contribution next Wednesday. I think I will call it Operation Baking GALS (Give A Little Support) – and if it works out as well as I hope, perhaps we could continue sending things to different troops, especially to anyone who has a special family member serving our country.

Again, please just shoot me a quick email back ASAP letting me know if you are up for this (I really hope you are, I chose my favorite friends and bloggers – and hey – get the kids in on it too – maybe they will get a patriotic boost from it!)
Once I hear from you, I will shoot you an email with the address to send the goodies.

Thanks for taking the time to hear me out. I really do appreciate it. And while we may not be Cheerleaders, I think this could be a really great morale boosting endeavor…don’t you??

What happened?? Well, within an hour I had 10 people email me wanting to do anything they could. I had fellow bloggers reposting the info on their own sites. I had large groups offer to post on their homepages...it's been amazing!

SO, from now on, Operation Baking GALS will be supporting our troops every month, once a month, and instead of our soldiers getting deodorant and soap, they'll be getting the one thing they can't get from the canteen - Homemade goodies made with LOVE. We will be assigning a different soldier to certain sub-groups of bakers each month so that we spread the love, and that way, a homesick troop will have a package with HIS name on it, filled with goodies to share. Now, doesn't that sound like something you could get into??

If so, please shoot me an email at bakingGALS (at) gmail (dot) com and we will get you onboard!!

Thanks again!