The preliminary totals are up.

Mary Katherine Ham–she who sends so many hearts aflutter ’round these parts–has a superb article about the impact of Valour-IT on laptop recipients, featuring Chuck Z.

For the types around here, an easy Where’s Megen.

And finally, the Valour-IT Project Blog has won an international blogging award. Yeah, color me stunned.

I was particularly moved by the realization that an international panel conducted the judging. During our most recent fundraiser, it was clear that there are Americans who cannot help but see assisting wounded American soldiers as a partisan political act. And yet, during a time when anti-Americanism is rampant (especially when it comes to the military), a collection of people from around the world set aside political considerations and looked at Valour-IT as the apolitical, humanitarian effort that it is.

It appears that sanity still has a toe-hold in this world…

But there’s something hidden going on here that doesn’t make the headlines: the injured. For every loss of life among American soldiers, several others are usually wounded.

It is those publicly-uncounted wounded that Valour-IT serves. While their buddy is laid to rest, they are the ones fighting for their lives in a hospital bed. As the family of the fallen is carried in the arms of their friends and fellow military families, the wounded soldiers are wondering what their lives are going to be like with broken bodies that will never be the same again. As their buddy is being laid to rest with honors, the politicians make a quick sweep through wards filled with wounded that will still be there after the camera flashes stop. The families of the living struggle to put one foot in front of the other and the wounded wonder if the prosthetic feet are as good as everybody says. The fallen’s loved ones dream of the day it will stop feeling like a knife in their chest, and the wounded hope that when the haze of the painkillers lifts, the PTSD and TBI won’t be as bad as they seem right now.

Loved ones whose hearts are aching in loss reach out to those around them, express themselves, plan memorials for their fallen hero, bellow out the rage over what has been ripped from them, mourn the futures lost.

Not so for the warfighter, whose connectedness is dependent on who visits or calls that day, and who is now discovering that the greatest indignity of severed nerves, shattered bones, and amputated limbs is that the soldier who once walked the streets in confidence and power is now cared for like a baby until he can find a way to make things work again.

Give that soldier something he can do for himself now–a way to express himself, write about his fallen brother, blow out the rage over the violence done to his body and build the courage to face the future that seems so impossible for now. A laptop will do that–give him confidence, dignity, self-expression, connectedness with those who will help him find a new equilibrium in his world-turned-on-its-head.

Giving out from 30 to 100 laptops per month since June, Valour-IT is in more demand than ever. We literally scraped the bottom of the barrel with our last delivery of laptops, and Soldiers’ Angels has said they cannot allocate any more funds for us until March 2008. We are filling vital gap that the government has missed, but we cannot do it without funding.

Don’t turn your face away from this just because it’s easier to think things are getting better, or because it’s too uncomfortable to think of their suffering while you are whole. They don’t want your pity; just your support. What better way to support them, to show you believe in their recovery and their future than to give them a laptop that they can operate regardless of the depth of their injuries. Please, help us help them.

I know how much it means to the guys who are stuck lying on their backs, unable to use their hands to so much as scratch. Being fed, bathed, taken care of like an infant—not exactly a fitting role for a warrior who’s used to being the one who helps others. It sure as hell wasn’t a role that I wanted, although there were many people who came to see me who helped…At that time I had no use of either hand. I know how humbling it is, how humiliating it feels. And I know how much better I felt, how amazingly more functional I felt, after Soldiers’ Angels provided me with a laptop and a loyal reader provided me with the software. I can’t wait to do the same, to give that feeling to another soldier at Walter Reed.–Chuck Ziegenfuss, inspiration for Valour-IT

You can donate here.

[I originally posted this here, but have encouraged people to steal, plagarize, or "freely quote" it around the blogs.]

Hey- Team Navy-USCG; desperate times call for desperate measures…

- SJS

Or you can preview here.

Hint: if you know a good portion of your audience is going to be viewing from a DoD workstation, use the Google video as they’re not blocked — yet…

[Note: FbL the HTML Elf dropped by and cleaned things up... Nevermind, stupid thing wouldn't embed properly. Tried to reconstruct the post...]

Where’s MEGEN? She’s been very busy, advertising Valour-IT–Voice-Activated Latops for OUR Injured Troops. Here’s a teaser…

Any detailed guesses? Those who have been in that actual room are exempted from answering, of course. Those who are familiar with MEGEN’s current general location are encouraged to base their answer on the contents/displays of the room, instead… for the edification of others.

Answers/guesses accepted here.

P.S. Am I the only one thinking Star Trek here?

To whet your appetite, here are some of the items as of this morning (more are on the way):

Of particular interest to this crowd might be an out-of-print edition of a book about the B-17, and a high-quality, rare model of an F/A-18C.

There’s also a Chris Muir original, three autographed books by Richard S. Lowry, and a very a special book not yet available to the public–Small Unit Actions.

And there is one very special item that I want to highlight: an extraordinary quilt [click to enlarge].

This quilt was designed and sewn by a former member of the Air Force, now a National Guard spouse. Echoing a missing man formation (the “missing” member is actually quilted in a ghostly gray), it is entitled “Gone But Not Forgotten.”

She writes:

Gone, But Not Forgotten is a 54″x59″ wall hanging/lap quilt. I have had several requests to script the title on the quilt as shown along with names of a few fallen members and will honor this request for the winner if they so choose. Although not strictly a missing man formation, it is meant to show the missing are not forgotten and although the quilting is not easy to see in the picture, there is a Bald Eagle quilted in the missing spot along with contrails from all the Bald Eagles.

You can bid on this beautiful quilt here.

And if you have an item of your own you’d like to put up for auction to benefit Valour-IT, you can click here and sign up.

Go Team Navy!

For those who may not be familiar with her: Mrs. G’s husband is currently deployed to Iraq, and she was one of the milbloggers recently invited to the White House for a meeting with President Bush.