With the holidays fast approaching, it's time to think about what can you do for those less fortunate. James heard Gary Sinise talking about Operation Iraqi Children's School Kits program last night on the radio, and, after looking into it a little more, we think it's a worthy cause, particularly for those of us who believe in our involvement in Iraq.

Democracy fails because of a lack of education. People fight in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, etc, because they have nothing better to do. Give them the tools to succeed. Help Iraqis get an education and get on to the path of a better future. Let's make sure no Iraqi is left behind.

What can you do? Of course you can donate directly to the program, and if you think you'll never get around to putting together school supply kits, that's probably the best thing to do. But, you can also send school supply kits directly to the Kansas City distribution center.

While it is tempting to send boxes of random supplies, the most efficient and effective way to help Iraqi children is to create sets of our School Supply Kits, which will be distributed to each student. Each Kit contains basic, badly-needed items that can make a world of difference to a child heading to school. Assembling standardized Kits ensures that each child receives the same number of the most needed items, facilitates customs clearance, and relieves our volunteers and soldiers of the time-consuming and labor intensive process of sorting and allocating random donated items. Kits are wildly popular among Iraqis, who often request them.

Assemble each Kit according to the following list of items. Please enclose NO additional items, and be sure that all items are new and unused. Each Kit should contain:

* One pair of blunt-end scissors
* One 12-inch ruler with metric markings
* 12 new pencils with erasers
* One small pencil sharpener
* One large eraser
* One box of colored pencils (Crayons melt in the Iraqi summer heat!)
* One package of notebook paper
* One composition book
* Three folders with inside pockets
* One zippered pencil bag
* One 2-gallon size zipper seal plastic bag

Place all items in the zipper seal bag and seal it.

It's that easy. Packing instructions are included on the website. Send kits on your own, get a school, work or church group organized and send a whole bunch. Whatever you choose to do, it's going to a great cause and you're doing a wonderful thing for Iraqi kids like the ones below.