Adopt A Ship - Update

The idea is to contact the crew of a ship that is providing tsunami relief and offer to send an electronic Christmas gift card to someone whom they designate. This would further empower the crew to do what they see is necessary while eliminating all intermediaries and all the paperwork. They see a need and then buy what it takes to solve the problem. Such a plan would not be tax deductable!

You can find a story showing the attitude of our sailors here
http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=16577

You can find a report on the good they are doing here (look under Tsunami Relief: Some More Good Guys posted 1/11/05) excerpted here

"1) This email is from an FSO who just returned from several days in Banda Aceh:
The sailors on the Lincoln also put together their own money to buy toys and stuffed animals from the ship's store, which they brought to the USAID/IOM tent. They were given to children who were brought in.An IOM worker pointed out one 15-year-old girl hugging one of the stuffed bears. The worker explained that she had no one to hug, as she had lost all of her family, but at least she could hug the bear.
We went over to talk to her for a while. Attached to the bear was a note:"With love, from YN2 Arellano, USS Abraham Lincoln"I hope that Yeoman Arellano knows that through this small act, he has brought some measure of comfort into a young girl's life." http://diplomadic.blogspot.com/


You can find the website for the Abraham Lincoln here
http://www.cvn72.navy.mil/

You can email the crew of the Abraham Lincoln here
penpals@lincoln.navy.mil

Anything that is not directed to a specific individual would need the approval of the Executive Officer (XO) of the ship. The XO of the Abraham Lincoln is Captain David A. Lausman

http://www.cvn72.navy.mil/bios/xobio.html

Update 1/13/05 - 7:37 PM - The is a related article in the January 2005 issue of Proceedings http://www.usni.org/ "Forward From Bureaucracy" by Commander Kenneth brown, Judge Advocate General Corps, U.S. Navy. It mentions the normal pitfalls of the Joint Ethics Regulation (JER) and the accompanying sections of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). That is why we're thinking of donating a gift to an individual sailor! Probably the best alternative for small donations (less than $10,000 to avoid gift taxes) would be the administrator of the Entertainment, Welfare and Relief fund of each ship.