Soldiers Angels

Soldiers' Angels was started by Patti Patton-Bader, the mother of two American soldiers deployed to Iraq.

Inception

Brandon Varn, Patti's eldest son, expressed concerns that there were soldiers in his unit that were not receive any mail or support from home. On news of this, Patti decided to change the situation. She quickly contacted a handful of friends and extended family and asked if they would support a soldier or two. Within just a few months, Soldiers' Angels went from a mother sending a few extra care packages and letters, to an Internet community with thousands of Angels worldwide. With more and more merchants donating services, money, and items for packages, Soldiers' Angels reorganized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2004.

Current Support

Soldiers' Angels currently supports tens of thousands of American military personnel stationed around the world. In December 2004, an online forum was created to provide coordination for the thousands of volunteer "Angels". As of April 2008, the organization contained over 200,000 volunteers led by an all-volunteer Board of Trustees and officers. Soldiers' Angels works gobally to address military-related needs including deployement support, wound care, remembrance of the fallen, and a wide variety assistance for military families.

Through the use of this organization, volunteers have been able to send hundreds of thousands of care packages and letters to deployed service members around the world. They have also supplied the those wounded in combat with the [First Response Packs] directly at the [Combat Support Hospitals] in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Germany, as well as provided care and comfort to those in stateside military and VA facilities. The organization has provided emergency aid to military families in need; partnered with the Department Of Defense to provide voice-controlled/adaptive laptops to nearly 3,000 severely-wounded servicemembers, as well as other technology that supports rehabilitation; provided flights to soldiers on leave or in emergency situations, and to their families wanting to be with them upon return from overseas; provided Level III KEVLAR armored blankets to give personnel extra protection in their vehicles when it was needed.