We're participating, too. We normally offer a military discount, though.

A few years ago, we ran a month long promotion for Any Soldier at one of our businesses. Any customer or employee could participate. "Any Soldier" collects toiletries, snacks, recreational material, clothing, etc for soldiers in combat zones. It's 100% volunteer based and they have designated soldiers who route the packages and letters to soldiers who don't get much mail from home or the ones who are far away from PXs and need stuff. You can go to their website and select a branch of service, read the things the soldiers are asking for and send whatever you want. They love just getting letters, too, so it's not just about sending "stuff."

We ended up sending 18 boxes of stuff that included frisbees, softballs, books, snacks of all kinds, beanie babies (they give them to the local kids to make friends), toilet paper, shampoo, CDs, DVDs, batteries, and just a boatload of other things. People donated whatever they wanted to from the list of suggestions we posted and we paid the shipping. A lot of the things, like the books and DVDs, etc were gently used, and that was fine. We got some really nice letters back, too. It was a lot of fun.

The thing is, a lot of us thought we should be out of there and a lot thought otherwise, but it didn't matter. It was about supportiing the soldiers, no matter what anyone thought about the war itself. We're right outside Selfridge ANG base. We see the planes come and go. We see the soldiers. It's personal, not political.