To begin with, don’t forget the Valour-IT Project is an ongoing thing. The fund raiser from 11/2-11/11/05 was but a moment to leverage off the Veteran’s Day Holiday for donations.

I was away from the net from Friday afternoon until last night. I had a hard time finind the consolidted After Action Report (AAR) on the big blogs (Mudville Gazette, Black Five, etc. I did find this wrap up on the project webiste (go figure!) and it’s incredible.

Note how a bunch of competetion by nature people got over enthused and instead of taking the $21,000 mark as the goal, each service branch team took that amount on as their goal. I was amazed myself to find out I hadn’t read the directions in my promotion, but I’ll take this type of failure any day….

Here’s the AAR from FbL, the project coordinator of Soldier’s Angels for this project, who took on this important project for our troops:

Fundraising Competition Totals

What can be said in the face of such amazing generosity, creativity and hard work? Mere words do not do justice to the impact you all will have on the wounded warriors who benefit from this. And superlatives cannot begin to describe the efforts and activities of those who have made it happen. You have gone far above and beyond the call of duty!

As for me, saying “thank you,” feels strange because I am not the one benefitting from this. But I sit here in awe and in tears as I try to comprehend the scope of what you have accomplished in these last ten days, and what it will do for beneficiaries of Valour-IT. It has exceeded expectations by such a scale that I can’t wrap my brain around it.

Our first fundraiser (in August) netted about $15,000 in three long weeks. I thought I was stepping out in faith by setting the bar for this one at $21,000 total in ten short days. Instead, you have more than quadrupled that! And there is still more to come as checks are counted and corporate matching funds come in. Current* totals (including auctions and online contributions not made through a team) are:

Donations Funds Average

Marines
209 $19,607.00 $93.81

Air Force
123 $11,114.11 $90.36

Army
258 $23,652.57 $91.68

Navy
223 $23,831.76 $106.87

Unaffiliated
154 $10,128.00 $65.77

Totals
967 $88,333.44 $91.35

*The information in the table above is not official. It is gleaned from automated totals for teams as of midnight PST on November 11, the information from team auctions, and the PayPal email notifications of donations made. It does not include checks mailed in (believed to be a minimum of $5,000), or matching funds (unknown). When those totals become available (hopefully by Tuesday), this information will be updated and a final winning team can be declared.

Watch for another post soon, detailing significant contributions of time, PR, and hard work of various people.

posted by FbL @ 9:28 AM

I’m not sure if it’s factored in above (but I imagine it is) a total of $2638 was raised by things put up for auction by various people. Not bad for a bunch of people sitting around in their pj’s at a computer, I’d say!

As noted, “we” in the teams, really screwed up and assumed we were all supposed to get $21K each. I hate it when mistakes like this happen, but the up side is it seems someone with “means” (read money and a heart) has taken note of the success of the 10 days of fund raising and is discussing significant support for the Valour-IT Project. Check out what FbL says here, and, as she orders, pray and cross your fingers for success in the negotiaions…

The winners are the current comabt vets who have stepped up to the plate and taken what came their way. Thanks to all for your support.

Again, a reminder that this isn’t a one time project fund raiser, and not only this project, but others, need your support on an onging basis.

BZ!