Manassas Journal Messenger | Soldiers aid for 09-08-04
The Azalea Charities Aid for Wounded Soldiers project provides comfort and relief items for soldiers and Marines sick, injured and wounded from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Donated items are sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda each week.
Monetary donations are used to purchase more expensive items like portable DVD players as well as to fill-in shortages in donations on other items. Make checks payable to Azalea Charities — Aid for Wounded Soldiers, P.O. Box 579, Dumfries, VA 22026.
The following items are needed:
Phone Cards of at least 120 minutes so the wounded can communicate with family and friends are the highest priority on the list.
Men’s Clothes: Medium, large and extra large sweat suits; medium, large and extra-large basketball-style exercise shorts; medium, large and extra large swim trunks; medium, large and extra-large light jackets.
Women’s Clothes: medium sweat suits.
DVD movies: New or used, comedies and dramas. The wounded are not ready for action movies, psychologists say.
Portable compact disc players: both tabletop for head injury and comatose patients and individual players.
CD music: rap, country, rock; anything on the top 20 CD list (usually available on an end-cap at any music store).
Block rolling backpacks, 19- and 30-inch sizes; new only.
Other items: stamps (no stationery), AA batteries, new electric razors.
Donations are tax deductible: The Wounded Soldiers project is sponsored by Azalea Charities, a Northern Virginia-based regional non-profit organization. Donors who wish to claim a tax deduction should include a list of their donations, the cost of those donations which do not have price tags attached and a self-addressed stamped envelope for return of a receipt. IRS Tax No: 54-1973354-501{c}3.
Donation Collection Points: bring items to the Manassas Journal Messenger office, 9009 Church St., Manassas, or to the Potomac News, 14010 Smoketown Road in Woodbridge. Residents of Montclair can bring items to the MPOA office at 3561 Waterway Drive. Woodbridge residents can also bring donated items to the Long and Foster office in the Lake Ridge Executive Building, 2070 Old Bridge Road (corner of Minnieville), to Weichert Realtors at 12479 Dillingham Square, to PAKMAIL at Lake Montclair Center on Waterway Drive or to General Dynamics at 14041 Worth Ave. (opposite WalMart). Organizations or businesses wishing to establish their own collection points, or groups or individuals desiring pick-up of donated goods should contact George Kraus at (703) 680-3557, e-mail: [email protected]