The Bomber Girls, LRC, a military support 501©3, is gearing up for a large care package shipment. On January 28th, 2016, from 12PM to 3PM, we will be holding a home baked cookie drive at the Coweta Veterans Club. (we are not SELLING cookies, we are collecting cookie donations) These cookies will be going to deployed soldiers overseas in time for Valentine’s Day. The Senoia Chapter has set their goal at 800 dozen cookies which means we need to raise some dough for mailing costs! We are looking for sponsors to help.
To donate for postage:
http://www.bombergirlslrc.com/#!senoia-chapter/c53h
or email: BomberGirlsLRCSenoia@gmail.com for more info about becoming a sponsor.
IT'S COOKIE TIME!! That's right, that time of year again to get some home baked goodies to our deployed service people for Valentine's Day!
So, let's start this off.
We need cookies. And we need postage.
First question... always.....How much postage do you need? Just for the numbers people out there, we ship in Regional B1 boxes, which cost us 10.66 per box in postage. Last year we shipped 201 boxes, 653 dozen cookies, which was a $2,142.66 bill. So if you can't bake but want to help.... bring us your dough! lol. We will have our merchandise table at the Cookie Drive if you would like to purchase a tshirt or patch to help out.
We will ship as many boxes as donations allow us to. If we have more cookies than postage, we will repackage them to get to local vets. If we have more postage than cookies, we will go out and get more cookies to fill the boxes.
The question I usually get right here is, why don't you ship in APO flat rate boxes? the B1 boxes are negligibly smaller (1 1/2") and the postage is $10.66 per box versus $13.80. It's a simple matter of economics.
The next question usually is, why don't you ship in big boxes? The B1 boxes are flat rate, larger boxes are weight determined pricing. It is much simpler for us to budget and estimate with the flat rate boxes.
The next one is... how do i pack the cookies? There are two options, either vacuum sealing them, or in a freezer ziplock bag with a piece of white bread (this helps keep them fresh). The little tins are nice, but they don't seal in freshness, and we have to repack them. We prefer the cookies to be packed 6 or 12 to a bag, but that's really just to make it easier on us to count, and to be make the variety of cookies per box higher.
How many dozen cookies go in a box? On average, 8-10. But it really depends on the size of the cookie and how they're packed.
Then.... what about something other than cookies? yes, we will take other things, fudge, brownies, sweetheart candies, rice krispie treats... whatever is shippable. If something non-shippable comes to us, we will repackage it along with any (if any) cookies we can't ship and take them to the USO at the Atlanta Airport for the Veterans passing through.
Ok, but do you need any addresses? YES! We are in dire need of APO/APO addresses to send these cookies to. We would like to have these in by the week before the drive. Please, PLEASE, we would prefer you not hand us an address the day of the drive. Of course, we will accomodate the request, but it sort of throws a wrench in the machine of what we're doing. Please email them to BomberGirlsLRCSenoia@gmail.com (please don't post addresses in a public forum)
Great! Can we/my church/my kids class bring some Valentine's cards to put in the boxes? YES! Please do! Anything to make our troops smile! Bring tons!
Will the bar be open? Yes, there will be coffee available and the bar will be open for business if you want to hang around and get to know some people.
Can I bring my kids to the packing party on 29JAN? Of course! We love having the younger generation involved. Just make sure they're not hungry Cookie Monsters!! lol