Patti and the Angels Receive More Kudos

March 31, 2008 | | Comments (9)

Patti Bader, leader, motivator and facilitator of literally hundreds of thousands of "troop support" volunteers has again received national attention. Her husband writes:

For founding Soldiers Angels and other exemplary work that she does to make the world a better place, Patti has just been notified that she is the recipient of the VFW 2008 James E. Van Zandt Citizenship Award.

From the VFW web site: James E. "Jimmy" Van Zandt was Commander-in-Chief of the VFW three times, and a veteran of three wars (World War I, World War II, and the Korean War). He served as an enlisted man in World War I and retired as an admiral following the Korean War. Descended from a pioneer family in Blair County, Pennsylvania, Jimmy worked his way from newsboy to United States Congressman. Recipients of the award named in Van Zandt's honor exemplify his dedication to public service, citizenship, and other admirable qualities.

Press release here.

[Denizens know, but newer visitors may not: besides sending hundred of thousands of care packages, ministering to the wounded, comforting families of the fallen, sewing blankets for hospitalized veterans, and caring for those on the front lines and their families on the homefront in myriad other ways, Soldiers' Angels is the organization that facilitates a program especially near and dear to the hearts of Castle Denizens--Project Valour-IT.]

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9 Comments

By MikeL on March 31, 2008 11:20 AM
I think she's done GREAT work. I do, however, believe she could make better use of the money by not mailing out all the crap thaht she does. Of late, I've just taken the free stamp and thrown the other stuff away. As a rule, I don't give money to charities thaht ask for it. I pretty much know who I want to support and why. I'll continue to support VALOUR-IT, because I see the immediate result AND trust the blog sponsors who're pushing it. Truly, my best wishes to Patti - but I'm tired of the mail. Just sayin'. ML
 
By FbL on March 31, 2008 11:57 AM
I hear you, Mike--I'm not crazy about it, either. It apparently brings in a lot of money, though. If you want to support one of the great things Soldiers' Angels is doing, my suggestion is that you choose a project that you can donate to directly, and do it through either a Paypal button specifically for the project (on the project/team page on the their website), or with a check (and a note saying it goes to a particular project) to one of the addresses on their donation page. That way your money will go only to what you want it to.
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 31, 2008 12:00 PM
Mike is a pretty constant PV-IT giver, Fuzzy.
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 31, 2008 12:13 PM
I'd like to point out what Fuzzy was trying to say but didn't explicitly - if you give money to Project Valour-IT for example, or any other specific project, that money goes to the project and not into the funds that SA uses for overhead, mailings, etc. You give to PV-IT, it gets spent on PV-IT.
 
By AFSister on March 31, 2008 12:29 PM
100% SPOT ON, MIKE. V-IT is as far as I will go with SA anymore. It's unique, and it works, but I'm sick and tired of being hounded for money that I just don't have. It makes me more likely to *NOT* donate. And I'm sick and tired of hearing about how Patti's the most wonderful mother in the world for starting SA- she's not. I know plenty of other mothers (and fathers) who are just as deserving of that title who will never receive even a fraction of the attention she gets. My .02. Let the Sis-Bashing begin.
 
By FbL on March 31, 2008 12:50 PM
Sorry about that Mike (and John). I thought I had a sentence at the end of that comment that thank him for continuing to support Valour-IT. AFSis, I remember our conversation on the subject, and I hope you remember my reaction. :) Regarding "wonderful mother, I agree that there are many unsung parental heroes out there (I'd put my own mother near the top of the list, and there are many I know who would join her there). I was contacted by someone outside Soldiers' Angels regarding the "America's Favorite Mom" contest, and was asked to go behind her back to ask her son to nominate her (which I successfully did) with the idea that it would boost the visibility of Soldiers' Angels. As far as I understand things, that's exactly what SA hopes to do with Patti's participation.
 
By AFSister on March 31, 2008 1:17 PM
Fuzzy... that's EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm talking about. I've received countless requests to "go vote for Patti! The most wonderful mother in the world!!" And I've done so exactly ZERO times. If you read the stories of the other mothers, you'll see that they were nominated for far less glamorous reasons than the national accolades Patti has received. This whole "promote Patti to promote SA" is getting REALLY out of hand. The soldiers aren't the ones getting the attention; she is. And isn't the whole idea behind SA is to focus on the SOLDIERS??? (and yes, I do remember our conversation)
 
By FbL on March 31, 2008 4:14 PM
I won't speak to the appropriateness of the current overall level of promotion of Patti, but since I did encourage this latest escapade, I feel the need to speak in my defense. Here's why I thought the attention was a good thing for the troops (and you know, I'm ALL about supporting our servicemembers in word and deed): attention to Patti means attention to SA, which means attention to the reasons for SA's existence--the troops and their families--and an opportunity to encourage people to join/donate/create, resulting in greater capacity to meet the needs of troops and their families. Maybe I'm being too idealistic, but that's my take on things.
 
By AFSister on March 31, 2008 9:53 PM
This is not an attack on you, nor is it an attack on Patti. I just want the focus to get back to the soldiers and away from the self-promotion.