Single Soldier Project: Basket Assembly

Phase III of our Single Soldier project consisted of taking all the goodies that have been donated and purchased and organizing them into gift baskets. We had a great group of volunteers throughout the day helping with this gargantuan task.

Some super ladies worked hard today to prepare for this redeployment.  I'm SO very appreciative of everyone who came out to help today!

We started an assembly line for creating the single Soldier 'welcome home' baskets.  It was a fine-tuned machine by the end of the day ... and we ended up with 181 assembled baskets!

The assembly line starts with a laundry basket, welcome home poster, and a Ziploc with a few paper goods -- paper plates, cups, and plastic ware.

Next, they get a bath towel and a package of Wet Ones wet wipes.

Adding hand towels, wash cloths, and an American flag

Next goes the laundry detergent and dryer sheets

Two bottles of water, a Cup of Noodles, and a USO kit

A book to read, cheese crackers, and Slim Jims

Body soap, body wash, and hand soap

Candy bars, granola bars, and a can of Coca Cola

Cookies, chips, pretzels, and a package of hot cocoa mix

A box of Girl Scout cookies, an "IRAQ, I Served" sticker, and a letter from an elementary student are the finishing touches.

We took a few breaks to roll towels and replenish stations.

Everyone had a job to do and the process went pretty quickly.

An example of a finished basket

Some of our finished baskets!

Lots of goodies for our single Soldier heroes!

We filled up the room with completed baskets.

We worked one poor volunteer into a corner.  =)

We started a Pillow-Toss line to get all of the donated pillows into the storage room.

Our rear detachment commander came in to check on us ... and learned you can't disrupt the flow of a pillow-toss line.

This is the end of the pillow toss line.

And we had a few moments of pillow-fight fun at the end of the day.

We left the room like this ... ready to be delivered and placed when flights start coming in.  Yay!

[Some of] our Volunteer Dream Team ... others came and helped but, unfortunately, I didn't get a group photo of everyone who came today.  =(