Manassas Journal Messenger | Aid for Wounded Soldiers needs your help

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 Bethesda each week. Many of the soldiers and Marines are grievously wounded and will require long hospitalization and rehabilitation.

Donations by check may be made payable to Azalea Charities — Aid for Wounded Soldiers, P.O. Box 579, Dumfries, VA 22026.

Needed items include: Phone cards of at least 120 minutes are requested.

DVD movies: New or used, comedies and dramas but no action or violence movies

Portable DVD players: These are the 7- to 10-inch self contained players. New only.

Component VHS/DVD/CD players: For Fisher House 1 at Walter Reed. Six are needed. The Fisher Houses are on-base living quarters for amputees and their families. New Only.

XBoxes video game consoles: The sets come with only one controller, so the donation of an XBox should be accompanied by up to three additional controllers so that up to four soldiers can play the game together.

Portable compact disc players: only the table-top kind are needed. Also, iPods for storing music.

CD music: rap, country, rock; anything on the top 20 CD.

Men’s clothes: Clothing should be new, good quality, in original packaging with price tags attached. No used clothing regardless of condition. Needed are good quality, heavy winter men’s longsleeved T-shirts in medium, large and extra large; flannel pajamas with drawstring pants; men’s extra large robes; zippered and hooded sweatshirt jackets; stocking caps, winter gloves, mufflers, snap-sided sweat pants.

Women’s clothes: New, good quality, in original packaging with price tags attached. No used clothing regardless of condition; stocking caps, winter gloves, mufflers; pull-on winter boots (in black) sizes 6 and 8; winter jackets (down, waist length) colors cream, black, blue, pink; lounging pajama sets.

Rolling Luggage: in black, 26- to 30-inch sizes; new only.

Other items: new electric razors, small umbrellas, disposable cameras, business card organizers (with plastic pages where cards can be placed), stamps and inflatable mattresses (the ones with electric pumps that are easy to inflate and deflate).

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 labels attached and a self-addressed stamped envelope for return of a receipt. IRS Tax No: 54-1973354-501c}3.

Donation Collection Points: bring items to the Manassas Journal Messenger office, 9009 Church Street 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 Avenue (opposite Walmart). Dumfries residents can bring their donations to the Dumfries Town Hall at 17755 Main Street.

Donation POC: George Kraus at (703) 680-3557, E-Mail: [email protected]

— From staff reports