We found ourselves at Pepperoni's, a local bar and pizza joint, there to celebrate several West Point newly graduated cadets who were going to deploy to Iraq within the next day or two. With them, their parents...there to drive them around for their last night of fun prior to their long and dangerous tour. Moms and Dads clinging to their badass son for a last hoorah. These West Point grads were also athletes and had played football for the Black Knights, they were HUGE...in every sense of the word. 

The raw nervous energy exuding from the parents was palpable. These brave young men were driven, articulate, focused and one of them explained...they were going to 'finish the mission'. Pragmatic, stoic and without question, they could not wait to get there.

I observed with awe and wonder and I will never forget that evening as long as I live. The year was 2007 and it changed me forever. As I watched the West Point grads and their parents, I could not imagine the fear and pride swelling up in the hearts of these Moms and Dads.

The most profound moment came when several, what I would call entitled young men, entered the restaurant, with their slick hair, turned up collars and loafers acting like they owned the place. The arrogance of these young men was obvious. It rubbed me the wrong way. The only thing that came to my mind was a scene from the movie Trading Places. The country club scene, after the yuppie quartet serenade and the wealthy young female heir was telling a story…”and she stepped on the baaallll”. You have to see it to get it.

These entitled young men had no idea how small and insignificant they appeared to me because of their complete lack of awareness about the young men I was with and celebrating. It inspired me. My commitment to our active military, veterans and service personnel began on that day.

I could not get the evening out of my head. I had to do something. I got an idea…An Awesome idea...The Lid got a wonderful awesome idea…my take on the Grinch, best book/animated tale of all time. My dog is named after Max, the Grinch’s dog & Maximus from Gladiator. Squirrel.

Lent was around the corner. After going to church and hearing the homily from my favorite Priest, in which he recommended doing something good for Lent instead of giving something up, it hit me. I was going to write to our service men and women in Iraq. And so began my writing career. To call it raw would be an understatement.

Okay, so what do you write about?

At Christmastime, I put all of the photo Christmas cards on the wall for display so when guests come to my home, they can take a look. Keep in mind, this was 2008…the iphone was one year old and Facebook was in its infancy…I mean high school kids were on fb, not the parents, ha. Everyone loved seeing the photo cards and inquiring about our family, friends and acquaintances.

The inspiration to correspond with our military men and women in Iraq went like this…they are over there in this God forsaken land fighting for us and our freedoms, why not write to these soldiers and share who they are fighting for and why. This turned out to be the most challenging Lenten effort I ever had. Mainly because I am not the writer who sends a quick note. No, my letters were 6,8,10 pages handwritten. Every day for 43 days. 

I had pulled the Christmas photo cards off the wall, piled them in a stack and began my Letters to Iraq. I needed to do some research about how and where to send the letters. In the neighborhood I live in now, I remembered a soldier who had served and I went to visit him. I spent some time hearing his stories and he was sent home after some serious injuries. He recommended I go online to a site called http://anysoldier.com/ to locate service members overseas and begin composing my letters to send in the mail. 

I decided to choose one soldier and hope he would share the information with his platoon/company etc. I was able to locate a West Point Grad…and Lt. Ben received 43 letters from me. 6-10 page letters, each about a family from my photo wall. I started every letter by thanking him and his group for serving our country, sacrificing to put himself in harm's way and for protecting our freedoms. Freedoms that allow me to write, blog, run in peace and on and on. God Bless America. Thank God I was born in the USA.

I made a copy of every hand-written letter I sent and have them to this day. I did this because I wrote about all the people who were on my Christmas Card Photo Wall. If anyone who sent me a Christmas card in 2007 is interested in whether I wrote about them or not, the answer is most likely yes, at least 43 of you. And if you want to know what I wrote, I can share it with you. The information I shared was specific to who these people are...who I know deeply or a little bit, just to give the soldiers a glance into who they are fighting to protect. All extremely positive. 

One day it happened. I received a package in the mail from Iraq. My soldier, Lt Ben, wrote to me. I couldn’t believe it, I cried when I read the return address. He was so grateful for all of my letters. He shared them with his entire battalion and then some. They loved it! He said they could not wait to receive letters of the stranger’s voice from the homeland, who did not remain a stranger for long. He told me the intimate letters were cherished.

Lt. Ben and I developed that WWII style exchange and the trajectory of my life changed.

It has been a lot of years and Lt. Ben and I have remained in touch. He made it back to the states and works in the private sector. He says he is still enamored by the time and effort I spent to share all the stories I did over that Lenten time. He still has all of my letters and I still have all of his.

The business my husband and I started in 2016 began with a college to career mission. We planned to assist high school & college students learn how to prepare and execute their career strategy. The business has evolved into assisting those who are entering the workforce for the first time. This includes our service members who are transitioning out of the military. Our military men and women are the most qualified but there are a lot of unknown’s when moving to the private sector and we help them.

We have developed some amazing partnerships with some incredible organizations who serve these military individuals. 

Daily, I reflect on the commitment of those who serve our country. The sacrifice they make to protect our freedoms. The US will always be threatened.

I did not choose to embrace the privilege to serve our country. My dad served...he is from the greatest generation and the respect I have for that group cannot be measured. On the day mentioned above at Pepperonis, I decided to serve in a different way. This is how I give back...helping our military men and women are who I serve now. This is my passion and my cause.

People always ask what they can do to help. I simply reply with...write a letter. Does not cost much and everyone can do it.

I have grown and become wiser yet I am still learning, every day. One thing I do now is I study history, something I was never interested in because I did not think it mattered.

It matters.