TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: CARE PACKAGES / WEAR YELLOW / DCI

Howdy, y'all, and greetings once again from deep behind the orange curtain in beautiful Irvine, California, the snack that smiles back.

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On with the show...

Care Packages for Coalition Troops Audience: Everyone

A fellow Tourbus rider in stationed Iraq sent me the following email earlier this week:

If you could pass on to your readers that if they know somebody over here, they would enjoy receiving a care package of treats or a letter. It is great receiving something in the mail from home and friends.

The key words are "know somebody." Because of security concerns, the military mail service is no longer accepting packages addressed to "any soldier" or "any service member." Some well-intentioned people have tried to bypass this new restriction by sending large quantities of packages to a single, known service member, but the Defense Logistics Agency Defense Distribution Center cautions against doing this because it "clogs the mail system and causes unnecessary delays."

So, how can you support our troops in Iraq and other countries without clogging up the military mail system? Simple! Find a service member in your community who recently deployed -- chances are someone from your work, church, or school is currently stationed overseas -- and then contact that service member's family to ask if there is anything you can do for them.

For example, offer to buy the family some supplies to be included in their next care package. Newsweek ran an brief article earlier this week talking about some of the more popular items among the soldiers in Iraq:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5359303/site/newsweek/

Most military families already know this next part, but before you ship ANYTHING to our troops make sure to double-check the US Postal Service's most recent list of restrictions on overseas military mail. You can find the list buried inside the latest Postal Bulletin at

http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/bulletin/pb.htm

The Postal Bulletin is updated every three or four weeks. Just look for "Overseas Military Mail" in the Bulletin's index.

What if you don't know a service member but still want to show your support? Not to worry. The US Department of Defense has a huge "Support Our Troops" page at

http://www.defendamerica.mil/support_troops.html

that has links to dozens of support agencies that sponsor programs for members of the armed forces overseas. Better still, check out the Army and Air Force Exchange Service's "Gifts from the Homefront" page at

http://www.aafes.com/docs/homefront.htm

This page lets you purchase gift certificates that the troops can use in any military exchange retail store. You can send the gift certificates to someone you know or you can donate it to an organization like the American Red Cross or USO who will distribute your gift certificate to a random service member.

I hope this helps.

Wear Yellow, Live Strong Audience: Everyone

I don't normally reprint press releases in Tourbus -- I prefer posting stuff I write on my own -- but a lot of people have asked me recently why I am wearing a yellow, rubber wristband with the words "Live Stong" on it. Well...

As a tribute to Lance Armstrong's inspirational fight against cancer as well as his historic attempt at a sixth Tour de France win, the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and Nike will launch the Wear Yellow Live Strong campaign. Nike will donate $1 million to the Foundation and lead efforts to raise an additional $5 million through the sale of yellow wristbands engraved with Lance's mantra, Live Strong. All proceeds will benefit LAF programs that help young people with cancer live strong.

[Source: http://tinyurl.com/342ou ]

Live Strong yellow wristbands are available for $1 each at

http://www.wearyellow.com/

And since Nike is sponsoring the Wear Yellow Live Strong campaign, you can also purchase the wristbands at all Niketown stores.

One word of warning: If you accidentally get Silly Putty [ http://tinyurl.com/36jul] on your yellow Live Strong wristband, it will not come off. Don't ask me how I know this. Just trust me. :P

DCI on the Big Screen Audience: DCI fans in the United States

Finally, if you are a fan of drum corps [hop on over to http://www.dci.org/about/ if you have no idea what I am talking about], you'll be interested to know that on Thursday, August 5th, select Regal, United Artists, and Edwards Theatres throughout the United States will be simulcasting the quarterfinals of the 2004 DCI World championship. Tickets are $15.00 per person.

If you can't make it to a DCI competition [ http://www.dci.org/calendar/ ] or DCI's California Tour of Champions
[ http://tinyurl.com/2tp34 ] later this summer, or if you just want to watch a DCI competition in high definition on a HUGE theater screen with 5.1 surround sound [ http://tinyurl.com/336ro ], check out

http://www.regalcm.com/index_dci.asp

Unfortunately, the Regal Entertainment Group is only broadcasting the quarterfinals. I guess Regal wants to keep their theatres free for the new Tom Cruise/Jamie Foxx movie opening that weekend. Your local PBS station may play a tape-delayed broadcast the DCI finals later this Fall, so check your station's homepage to find the date and time.

That's it for today. Have a safe and happy week, and we'll talk again soon.

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