Holiday Care Package Drive - Please Read

Lucky Dog Hot Sauce said:
You are the man!!!

Thank you so much for your generosity!

We're now at 104 care packages & counting with 9 days to go that I'll take still take donations.

I'll send up to 200 packages total, but I'm thrilled we've met the initial goal of 100!

I'm getting the addresses from anysoldier tonight. :woohoo:
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He's so happy, he forgot that he said it once already! :rofl:

wait that was weird. now I just look :crazy:. LDHS, you must have edited it in the midst of me posting.
 
ha!

I clicked "post" on my phone...somehow it posted twice.

But I am that excited. I am totally psyched that we were able to exceed the 100 care package goal. As of right now 104 soldiers will receive 2 bottles of hot sauce each, and most often it's shared with as many as a dozen others. So at this point everyone here and on my FB page has helped to send a random gift and improve the food for up to 1248 soldiers...and counting.

That's pretty awesome.
:cheers:
 
Update: Closing in on the target date and I'm thrilled to share that thanks to some last min donations, including a 5-package donation from my very own dad, I will be sending 109 total care packages! Possibly more - there's still 2 days left.

I received the password to the anysoldier database from the president of the org and spent about 40 mins downloading the 100 addresses. The other 9 addresses were provided by folks who donated, and will be going to friends and family of those generous folks. Worth noting that every one of the people who provided APO addys donated enough for several packages, which I thought was really, really I will be packing up the other 40-50 packages in the next few days and I'm about 60% done with the customs forms.

Thanks again to Ann of Texas Creek Products (our very own SalsaLady!) and her family for helping to complete the partial forms - it saved me literally hours and hours.

I will be sure to post an update pic when the 109 package pile is done! Thanks again to everyone who supported this cause in any way!
:cheers:
 
Final Result:

Collectively we managed to raise enough money to send 110 care packages ($605!!)
:woohoo:

You guys rock!


This is what 100 completed US Customs Forms looks like:

481691_10151276902120340_359046614_n.jpg


Thanks again to Ann of Texas Creek Products (our very own SalsaLady!) for her & her chil'rens time in pre-populating these forms with my return address and contents details. Saved me a TON of time and probably a future wrist surgery - just doing the addresses was a pretty brutal amount of writing, so this was a huge help!! :woohoo:


Today I'll be sending these 70 packages out:

35671_10151276900580340_977706110_n.jpg


There's a bag in the front seat too. Now I know what Santa's Sleigh looks like first hand. Yeesh.

Unfortunately I'm still waiting on the USPS to send me another 40 padded envelopes - they said they have a full case of 100 on the way to me which was expected to arrive yesterday.

So for the last 40 packages I'm at the mercy of the United States Postal Service. They should get here today or tomorrow, so the balance of packages will go out Saturday or Monday. I'll pick up the remaining 10 customs forms today.

Thanks again to everyone who supported this cause and helped to make this a reality. It's a great feeling to know that 110 recipients and everyone they share with will have that much of a happier holiday as a result of your generosity.

And remember - it doesn't have to be a holiday to do a random act of kindness. www.anysoldier.com is something you can do at any time - doesn't have to be fancy. A box of cookies and a couple of use paperback books would cost very little and will make someone's day! All APOs are considered domestic postage, so a flat-rate package can cost as little as $5.50 (like the padded envelopes I'm using) or $11.35 for the med-sized flat rate box, which can hold a bunch of goodies. These folks live in horrible conditions and have virtually no access to the creature comforts that we take for granted every day. If at all possible I highly encourage your support of www.anysoldier.com
Love & hot sauce
<3

Scott
Lucky Dog Hot Sauce
http://lucky-dog-hot-sauce.myshopify.com/pages/military-outreach
 
Ps

Have I mentioned that I hate the post office? When I first started this thing I called to see which customs form I needed. I told them what I was sending, in what packaging, and how much each weighed. I was told to use the short form.

At the post office, the gal weighed the 1st one and says, "oh, you need the long form for these".

So now I get to spend every bit o spare time this weekend filling out 110 more customs forms.

:doh:

So in case I failed to mention that I hate the post office, there it is. Agh.

Ah well - it's a good cause and thus worth doing, just a pain in the rear.

Looks like they'll all now ship Monday.
 
Thanks Darth - really appreciate that.

I'll keep on keepin on - my hurdles are nothing compared to the difficulties that the recipients of these packages go through every day, so I just have to keep that in mind while I go through this exercise.
:cheers:
 
Scott, I already replied in PM, but thought I'd post here also for others. Try going to a different post office. The USPS workers make judgement calls all the time about what's required or which category it belongs in. Catch someone on a different day, get a different answer.

And if you do have to re-do all of them...as I said.....That SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!
 
I called national & grilled them.

they were apologetic but apparently the 16 oz+ has been a rule for a long time. But 2 things happened:
1. When I called I got someone who didn't know there was a threshold, and apparently they have a widespread training issue with this. Easy to understand since its a senseless rule, that cause two forms to be used for the same package based on a weight threshold when there's no weight threshold on the package. :doh:

2. They never used to enforce the rule, but recently updated the post offices in my state to new computers - the 2-scan process they now have won't take a match between the weight and the barcode on the small form.

So yep - 110 more forms to fill out.
:woohoo:
 
I am very blessed.

My neighbor s had folks over last night & they took pity on me - and chipped in to help!

We knocked out the last 80 forms before 11:00 PM & I was packing the last 30 packages until about 01:00, and today at lunch the care packages were shipped!
:woohoo:

On the road now but pics to come later.
:cheers:
 
Why were the "long forms" harder you ask?

This is why:

256305_10151282858775340_842347257_o.jpg


In hindsight I shoulda named my company "A+ Hot Sauce"

Then under Company name I could have written "A+" - quick, easy. lol



At least the post office was kind enough to allow me to use their cart:

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75 out today - 35 more tomorrow. Whee! PO's so busy right now - I could feel the daggers from the people in line behind me. Every form had to be stamped like 6 times (they made me stamp 'em) and every one scanned, weighed, etc. 30 mins in line then 2 hours of processing at the post office today.

And every second totally worthwhile.

Thank you all again from the bottom of my heart for your contributions to this cause. :cheers:
 
Lucky Dog Hot Sauce said:
75 out today - 35 more tomorrow. Whee! PO's so busy right now - I could feel the daggers from the people in line behind me. Every form had to be stamped like 6 times (they made me stamp 'em) and every one scanned, weighed, etc. 30 mins in line then 2 hours of processing at the post office today.

And every second totally worthwhile.

Thank you all again from the bottom of my heart for your contributions to this cause. :cheers:
Click to expand...

scott, i was think about the counter issue before yiou went, I was going to suggest you let them know the day before so they could have extra help.

Gonna check out the link now- Thanks for your determination!
 
In the midst of a short call from my brother at about 1am, first one in about a month, he mentioned that he received the package! He was a little perplexed from the random package that wasn't directly from family though.
 
griff87 said:
In the midst of a short call from my brother at about 1am, first one in about a month, he mentioned that he received the package! He was a little perplexed from the random package that wasn't directly from family though.
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I believe you and your mom both contributed!

Tell you what - because you guys sponsored several packages, send me a PM with his t-shirt size & ill get one out to him.
:cheers:
 
Hey where'd the picture go?
 
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