New Site Sends Care Packages to Black Female Soldiers (5380 hits)
The Sister Soldier Project, a grass roots effort that has shipped well over 1,000 care packages totaling 5 tons of goods to Black female US troops--the Sister Soldiers--serving in the Middle East, announces the launch of its official project related consumer website, www.sistersoldierproject.com
Myraline Morris Whitaker founded the Sister Soldier Project out of her desire to fulfill a specific need for our Sister Soldiers. Whitaker found that critical ethnic personal hair care products, products important to the quality of life for these women, were simply not available through normal channels during their tours of duty in the Middle East theatre of U.S. military operations.
Whitaker also discovered that the Sister Soldiers were requesting, in their letters and emails home, specific such hair care brands--by name--more than any other category of products.
Whitaker began to buy such products at retail, shipping to individual Sister Soldiers whose names and requests she obtained from www.anysoldier.com. She enlisted the aid of friends and local women's organizations, which led to group Packing Parties on both coasts, including numerous locations throughout Central and Southern California.
Broadening her reach, to be able to dramatically increase the number of Sister Soldiers to whom she could send goods, Whitaker secured the generous cooperation and product donations from leading Black hair care manufacturers, such as SoftSheen-Carson, Luster Products Inc., Dr. Miracles and Organic Root Stimulator.
"Luster Products, Inc is very pleased," said Sonya Luster-Munoz, Vice President, Luster Products, Inc., "to have been asked to partner with the Sister Soldier Project in supplying personal care hair products because it affords our company the opportunity to show our gratitude for our military service men and women around the world who commit their lives to protecting our freedom."
On January 21, 2008 a front page Los Angeles Times article ran, "A supply line for sister soldiers", by Ann Simmons, Times Staff Writer. The appearance of this article resulted in inquiries from individuals and women's groups around the country providing funds for shipping postage and often inquiring how they could set up their own Packing Parties. During 2008, Whitaker and the Sister Soldier Project story was also featured in national radio interviews, Our Weekly, LA Watts Times, the San Luis Obispo Tribune and KCOY, CBS affiliate, Clear Channel TV.
Whitaker believes "the true satisfaction for anyone associated with the Sister Soldier Project is evident in the many thank you notes and cards we receive from the soldiers themselves. The Project provides them a much needed service and gives them a bit of the comforts of their normal lives back home, at the same time demonstrating that we here remember them and their safe returns are in our thoughts."
Sistersoldierproject.com will now make it possible for anyone interested in supporting this effort to log onto the site and sponsor one or more care packages to Sister Soldiers, choosing from the several themed packages available, and then specifying a particular soldier by name and address or simply allowing the site to select an appropriate recipient from its database.
