Bridges of Peace

Show the World what the USA is about! Show them what Love can do!

Help a Child Through a Soldier!

Get your School or Organization INVOLVED!

Watch us on News 12 NJ!
List of Drives - Add yours here
Listen to "Toys for Peace" - written for us by Ray Korona and Pete Seeger

Notes from our soldiers....

"This is awesome! Your project sounds wonderful...Thank you for your generous support of our Iraqi citizens." - LTC Kathy Brill, 358th Civil Affairs Brigade, US Military

"My motto is: "I make the children smile, for they're the future of Iraq" (couldn't do it without your help, though). By the way, I'm the "army guy" in the pics." Steve Stephen Stewart MAJ, CA, USA

"Thank you so much for your support ...Yes, we are starting to Build those Bridges and this is a great example of making that happen." Thanks Again Col Chet Wernicki

URGENT IRAQ APPEAL: Children Need Items

Drive Directions:

Bridges of Peace coordinates Children's Needs drives to support children who have been affected by war and poverty and supports volunteers who run a drive by providing them with the tools they need to run a successful drive. Groups will be featured on our website and awarded Bridges of Peace Instrument of Peace certificates for their goodwill.

We invite volunteers to run drives within school/community/company to collect items for children in need. Items include, school supplies, stuffed toys, clothes, new shoes, children's books, soccer balls, art supplies, etc...

- We contact military to assist in receiving items and in distributing them to the children who are in need.

Our goal is to make a difference in a child’s life and to enhance relations between the US soldiers stationed in War torn areas and the local people. We ask our USA families to BUILD BRIDGES OF PEACE.

If you would like to hold a Bridges of Peace - Help a Child through a Soldier Drive in your community, please send us an email to receive your Toolkit documents by email to contact@bridgepeace.org

ToolKit will include:

a) How to run a Bridges of Peace Drive Directions (Also Below)
b) sample flyer
c) Bridges of Peace Logo
d) Sponsor a Box flyer
e) Sample Press Release
f) Sample Press Release II
g) Military Address Shipping Label

Let us know who you would like to support. For example: Children of Iraq. We will send you appropriate shipping information of military personal names and addresses and estimated costs for shipping. See item #5 below in the directions for examples.

How to Run a successful Bridges of Peace (Children's Needs) Drive Directions

1. Write a letter or speak with your school district asking them for approval to hold the Drive at your school. Give your drive a name. For example - Building Bridges of Peace in Iraq Toy Drive. We can send you a sample letter at your request.

2. Once approval is obtained, prepare a flyer to be sent to all the school children in your district.

-Get approval to distribute the flyer.
-Decide the dates that you wish to run the drive.
-Photocopy all flyers and distribute a week to several days prior to the beginning of the Drive.
-Allow approximately 2 weeks to run the drive.
-Send for ToolKit with sample flyer.

3. Create collection Barrels for your school.
-You can use a new garbage type barrel and decorate it. (We put yellow ribbon around the top with a bow. We put a sign, Put Toys/Items inside with an arrow up or you can just put the Bridges of Peace Logo here).
-You can also create posters about the drive.
-Send for Toolkit with the Bridges of Peace logo to attach to your barrel or poster.

4. If you have several Barrels at several locations, assign a volunteer to be responsible for that barrel. Have them pick up 2x a week and bring to the central location that you have set up to store the items.

5. At the end of the Drive, ask volunteers to help sort through and pack items in boxes.
-You must check with the post office and estimate how you will ship the items. We had shipped the items to military addresses(APO) which are sent through our military to Iraq. This cut down on shipping charges. Items sent to military addresses are sent oversees (ie Iraq) through our military costing you normal domestic US Postal rates instead of high international rates. We decided to ship big boxes(not more than 108 inches total length) which cost us approximately $10.00 - $15.00 a box.

Standard priority boxes given to you by the Post office are much smaller and don't fit as many items to a specific location. We recommend obtaining your own boxes by buying them at Staples(3 pk for $9.99) or getting them at a local food store early in the morning before they are cut up and thrown away. We were able to get most of ours from stores.
- If you are shipping internationally (not through a military address), charges will be much more expensive ranging from $50 - $70 a box. I suggest you estimate this correctly in order to raise the correct funds to cover the charges.

6. We ran a Sponsor a Box Drive and was able to collect all the funds to cover our shipping charges.
We created a Sponsor a Box flyer that is in the toolkit which allows the family to write their name on it which can be attached to each box that will be shipped.

7. Decide exactly what items you wish to ship to each location. Pack boxes accordingly. Make Labels for all the Boxes. Put Send To: Location and the From Location on boxes.
- Contact the Post Office. I recommend visiting them while you are packing boxes or perhaps during the drive. We had 55 boxes and asked for a free pickup. The Post Office agreed and asked that I call them the day before pickup to inform them to get the boxes. I also obtained the necessary Custom Forms to be filled out per box. The custom form is simple, just put your name(from) and To addresses and that the shipment are gifts. You also must specify the contents. We just put Toys.
- When the post office comes to pick up the boxes, be present at the location. They may have to make 2 trips if necessary.
- You will then have to go to the post office and wait while they process the forms and each box for shipping. At that time, you will know exact charges for your shipping. They will then total all the boxes and you will have to pay the charges.

8. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR DRIVE!! We will present your school with award certificates from Bridges of Peace as being an Instrument of Peace.
Please make sure to take digital photos of your school children & volunteers. We will add them to your own special page on the Bridges of Peace website located at www.bridgepeace.org. Please let us know all about your drive and who everyone is so we can add this to your page.

MAY GOD BLESS YOUR MISSION OF GOODWILL. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

Published on: 2005-03-11 (6700 reads)

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