March 15, 2004
Senator John Warner
Senator George Allen
United States Senate
Washington, DC
Dear Senators:
The Freedom Pens Project is a volunteer effort spearheaded by the members of SawMill Creek Woodworkers Forums to provide custom hand-crafted writing pens to American servicemen and women overseas. Every Freedom Pen that is delivered will serve as a constant reminder to our troops that they are not alone and will have our continued support until every one of them returns home.
Freedom Pens are being made by individual woodworkers everywhere--from small towns to our largest cities. Amateur woodworkers are donating their time, talent and personal funds to create custom pens as a symbol of their support for our military men and women. As of today, March 15, 2004, 1069 pens have been received and 567 pens have been delivered to Fort Eustis Army Post in Newport News Virginia and shipped to the Middle East.
We believe we can ship over 20,000 pens this year, however our target number is relative to the number of woodworkers who are willing to participate. Monetary donations will be necessary but we can produce hand-crafted pens at a very low cost since all of our labor is a volunteer effort. The progress of our Freedom Pen program will be updated regularly on Freedompens.org and in the SawMill Creek Freedom Pens Forum. The men and women in our military forces serve and protect many nations all over the world. They are provided the very best equipment and technology by our Government but they need moral support from home; positive assurance that the people of our country are behind them every minute of every day.
We are very blessed to have the support of business and individuals who have provided monetary and material donations to this project. Our immediate goal is to raise enough money to purchase and distribute the 20,000 pen kits that we need to reach our goal for the year 2004. Our long-term goal is to provide each soldier stationed overseas with a custom pen. Every $1.90 collected will provide a pen kit for a woodworker, including the shipping costs. We hope to collect enough donations to pay for the vast majority of kits used for the project with priority assigned to schools and our sponsored Turn-A-Thons.
We need media exposure to let people know about our program. With every newspaper article that has been written to date the number of woodworkers that have joined us has grown. As we reach more of the woodworking community we will be able to provide more pens to our troops. Although we have been able to deliver pens via Fort Eustis we are still awaiting permission to use the Chaplains Corps as a vehicle to personally deliver our pens to the troops in the field. Chaplain Mike Payne at Fort Eustis has a request pending through his command to assist us delivering our precious cargo. We feel that our writing instruments will also be beneficial to the Chaplains Corps in their mission to keep the morale of our servicemen and women as high as possible.
A large percentage of our woodworkers are military veterans--these are the generations of Americans who have served our Nation proudly and know firsthand how much it means to have the support of the American people. We believe that if we are to send our sons and daughters into harms way we owe them our support and our prayers until every one of them is home safe on American soil. It is equally important that the families of our servicemen and women know that the American people truly care and that we will continue to support and pray for their loved ones who are in harms way.
If you could hold one of these pens in your hand and read the message that is often attached you would instantly understand the pride and the honor of giving such a gift to an American Hero. Many of our pens are made by school children and they include their messages of hope and admiration with their hand made pens. These wonderful kids have found a tangible means of demonstrating how they feel and are loyal American Patriots who have stepped forward to share in our effort to support our military.
Your endorsement of the Freedom Pen Project would provide us with the recognition we need to improve our distribution and to reach more Americans who would be willing to help us produce pens and fund our project.
You will find all the information you need to evaluate our Project at the following Internet Addresses;
http://www.freedompens.org
http://www.sawmillcreek.org
We appreciate your time and consideration concerning our request and we offer you the opportunity to join us in our efforts to show our support for our American Patriots.
Keith W. Outten Jr.
Freedom Pens Project Administrator
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