I would like to offer a special thank you to everyone supporting Operation Komando!
Here is an e-mail I received from Steve Dobos in Monroeville, PA. He pulled together a team of people in his workplace to run a troop donation drive for Operation Komando. This is a great idea and we thank you so much for your support of the troops and Operation Komando! Way to go!
Hello Kim,
My name is Steve Dobos and I work at Westinghouse Electric Company as a Senior Hardware Engineer in Monroeville, PA. I have been listening to your show for quite some time now and you have inspired me to do something big!
This past week, I put together a Troop Donation drive here at work, complete with volunteers, that ran April 23-27. I called it Support Operation Komando. And I mentioned to many people that you were the inspiration for this troop donation drive.
After asking some close friends and acquaintances if they would like to volunteer, I immediately gained a bunch of volunteers! Next, I talked with a few folks in the HR and the Communications departments and before I knew it, the donation drive was advertised and underway without a hitch.
 Now, the way I ran the troop donation drive here was similar to what you were doing with individual people. But, what I did was collect all of the individual items (no cash) from the folks here at Westinghouse and place the items in our storeroom until shipment, as opposed to having our folks buy and ship items out to Iraq themselves. This way, the people could spend more money on obtaining items for the troops instead of splitting the cost between buying and shipping the items.
Our volunteers and I helped collect each donated item. Then a few of us got together and packed and shipped 66 flat rate boxes full of donations out of our building addressed to SGT Langr and Ray B. in Iraq. We still have about 73 or so flat rate boxes to pack and ship so these new 73 boxes will be sent to the new address with Chaplain Blake Lasater at the FPO address.
By the way, all shipping costs were donated anonymously! I am proud to say that we collected enough donated items in one week to fill approximately 139 USPS Military Kit Boxes.
The support and donated items from the folks here exceeded my expectations! The donation collection and advertising work performed here was done with the help of volunteers in the office. With political savvy, our volunteers took an original poster that I had made up for the donation drive, and created an official Poster of SUPPORT OPERATION “KOMANDO.” These posters were made and placed on several easels throughout the building. An internal news letter of SUPPORT OPERATION "KOMANDO" was sent out over our intranet.
Facilities set up the tables to collect donations and located a room to store items until shipment. Now keep in mind that we are a company with many multicultural and multi-political employees, so, not crossing the line with a Military Donation Drive is a very tricky thing to do.
Well, our staff worked quickly with tight political correctness and pulled it off without error.
I wanted to say thank you for the work that you do with that radio microphone of yours! Your work inspires more people than you know and I am sure your words will continue to inspire people for time to come. Your digital knowledge is astounding and your "take a chance" attitude inspires us all!
Thank You,
Steven P. Dobos
Senior Hardware Engineer
Westinghouse Energy Center Repair and Replacement Automation Services
Volunteers (from left to right): Johnna Chicots, Dennis Skeers, Wayne Young and Steven Dobos. Two other main volunteers not pictured are Cathy Surgot and Jim Vandzura. The picture shows about one fourth of the donated items collected.
I also received an e-mail from an office of about 20 people that shipped off 23 boxes to servicemen and women through Operation Komando! Thanks to Louise Ligouri and all of the staff at Erickson, Thrope & Swainston, LTD. for supporting our troops!
Teams from Bradley Middle School in San Antonio, Texas competed to find out who could collect the most items for our troops. Team SIXERS came out on top. As a whole, over 1,000 items were collected.
Pictured are the SIXERS along with a few of the items collected.
Congratulations "SIXERS!"
A special thanks to the group that ran "Support Operation Komando." Mr. Wix initiated the project but he gives ALL the credit of its success to the other team members and the kids that collected the items. Pictured (left to right): Mr. Wix, Ms. Canion, Ms. Kaminiski, Ms. Thronson, Ms. Ballantyne and Ms. Taylor. The two students pictured to the right worked along with Ms. Kaminski and Ms. Taylor to pack all of the collected items. A big thank you to all of them!
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