Operation Beanie Baby

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2004 — Fourteen-year-old Alison Goulder
got personal thanks
at the Pentagon today from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz and Air
Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, for
supporting U.S. troops in Iraq through a grassroots-level
campaign collecting
Beanie Baby dolls.

The Pentagon leaders praised the Scottsdale, Ariz.,
eighth-grader for
commitment and perseverance that led to the collection of
28,000 of the stuffed
critters for deployed troops to hand out to Iraqi and
Afghan children.

Goulder said she read in a magazine about Operation
Grateful, an effort by law
firm Greenberg Traurig to send care packages to troops in
Iraq, Afghanistan and
Germany. The magazine quoted Joe Reeder, former
undersecretary of the Army and
now a partner with Greenberg Traurig, as saying Beanie
Babies were the top item
on the troops' wish list.

Goulder, who started collecting the stuffed critters when
she was 7 years old,
saw the article as a call to action. "I thought it was
great, something that I
could do to show support for the troops," she said.

She and her sister Jenna, 11, and brother Greg, 10, scoured
through their
closets and found about 80 Beanie Babies.

But the effort didn't stop there. Goulder challenged other
family members and
friends to donate their Beanie Babies to the cause. She
hung fliers up around
her school, Rancho Solano, urging her classmates to pitch
in. She helped
sponsor a school dance in October, with the price of
admission: one Beanie
Baby.

"The effort kind of snowballed," she said. "My original
goal was 1,000 Beanie
Babies, but we met that the first day." Soon 600 to 800
Beanie Babies being
arriving at the school every day.

So far, the effort has raised 28,000 Beanie Babies, more
than 15,000 of which
have already been shipped to Iraq. Goulder said she's not
finished. "As long as
people keep bringing them in, I'll keep collecting them,"
she said.

Goulder's parents say they aren't surprised by their
daughter's enterprise.
"We've always tried to encourage contributing to the
community," they said
during their visit to the Pentagon today. "And she's always
been very goal-
oriented."

Myers thanked Goulder for her "initiative and
stick-to-it-ness" and told her
the contribution means "more than you will ever know" to
U.S. troops in Iraq
and Iraqi children.

"This is terrific. It's exactly the right thing to do,"
Myers said. "Thank you
for persevering."

Goulder said she's received "heartfelt notes" from people
who have donated
their Beanie Baby collections for the cause, and said she
took special pride in
seeing a magazine cover that depicted a soldier giving a
Beanie Baby to a
smiling Iraqi child.

"They don't have a lot to hold on to," she said. "Hopefully
this will make a
difference, at least for a few days."

Reeder called the effort "a part of winning the hearts and
minds" of the Iraqi
people. "If you send 28,000 Beanie Babies, that's creating
28,000 smiles," he
said.

Greenberg Traurig's 22 offices nationwide have sent more
than 3,000 care
packages to Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany, Reeder said. In
addition to Beanie
Babies, the shipments include food and snack items, cameras
and cosmetics
donated by the Estee Lauder Companies.

The initiative is an example of grassroots support for
deployed troops being
recognized in the Defense Department's "America Supports
You" campaign. The
program showcases America's support for the men and women
of the armed forces
and the myriad ways the country is expressing that support.
-------------------------------------------------------------
You can support "Operation Beanie Baby" through
http://www.americasupportsyou.mil or click the Title Of This Blog and it will take you there.