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Nothing says “Thank You” like free food

Last month I posted about Applebee’s plan to offer free entrees this upcoming Veteran’s Day. Posted today at SlashFood was an updated list of more places offering free eats to our military:

…to celebrate Veteran’s Day next Wednesday, several major casual-dining restaurants — including Applebee’s, McCormick & Schmick’s and Golden Corral — are offering free food to the nation’s military vets and active-duty personnel, USA Today reports.

Outback Steakhouse is offering a free Bloomin’ Onion appetizer and a drink to vets and current military personnel on Wednesday. Krispy Kreme is giving away donuts, and even Home Depot and Lowe’s are getting in on the action offering 10 percent discounts to military.

At Applebee’s restaurants around the country, vets and active-duty military can get a free entree on Wednesday from 11 a.m. til midnight. And while Applebee’s will ask for military ID, the company says it won’t be sticklers for proof.

“We’re not going to argue with folks who might forget to bring it,” Sam Rothschild, senior vice president of operations for Applebee’s told USA Today.

McCormick & Schmick’s will give vets a free entree on Sunday instead of on the holiday so that vets can bring their families, CEO Bill Freeman told USA Today. The restaurant will also ask for military ID and recommends reservations.

Buffet meals will be free for both veterans and active-duty military at Golden Corral restaurants on Monday, Nov. 16, from 5 to 9 p.m. The event — the restaurant chain’s ninth annual Military Appreciation Monday — is not on Veteran’s Day so that it doesn’t interfere with holiday activities, spokeswoman Dolly Mercer told USA Today.

Additionally, the Ark Restaurant Group, which includes Bryant Park Grill, Canyon Road, El Rio Grande, Gonzalez y Gonzalez, Sequoia, RED, The Grill at Two Trees, Gallagher’s and Gallagher’s Burger Bar wrote in a e-mail alert to customers, “As a thank you to the service men and women and the veterans of our armed forces, Ark Restaurants will not be charging our soldiers and veterans for their meal on Veterans Day at any of our restaurants on the East Coast.”

BuildASign.com donates banners to troops supporters

Courtesy of Greta of Soldiers’ Angels of Louisiana:

BuildASign.com™ Donates 20,000 Banners to Supporters of US Troops at Home and Abroad

Austin, TX — November 10, 2008

In honor of Veteran’s Day, BuildASign.com™ is re-launching its banner giveaway to help 20,000 more Americans show their support for the US armed forces. With this donation, BuildASign.com™ will provide military families all over the country with personalized banners for their homecoming and holiday celebrations while encouraging businesses to create banners that show their support for our troops.

BuildASign.com™ is also giving away jumbo holiday cards to families whose service members won’t be home in time for the holidays. These families can send personalized jumbo holiday cards to loved ones overseas for less than the cost of shipping a banner. Both free banners and free jumbo cards are available to everyone at www.BuildASign.com/Troops.

“We received such an amazing response from our original banner giveaway in July that we had to find a way to re-launch the campaign. Now, after making some capital improvements to our production process, we’re ready to give away twice as many banners as before. We’re also giving away jumbo holiday cards that families can more easily ship to their loved ones overseas.” — Andy Knopp, Sr. Operations Manager at BuildASign.com™

All products offered at www.BuildASign.com/Troops are 100% customizable. Users can simply choose from one of the 12 designs on the page, personalize their banner or jumbo card using BuildASign.com™’s proprietary online designer, and checkout securely.

Through the landing page, military families and friends can also enjoy heavy discounts on many of BuildASign.com™’s popular holiday gift products like magnetic bumper stickers, custom parking signs and personalized license plates. The offer is limited to one free product per order and does not include the cost of shipping. This donation cannot be combined with any of BuildASign.com™’s other promotional offers and will end when all 20,000 banners have been given away.

About BuildASign.com™ — Austin, Texas-based BuildASign.com™ has reinvented the way people buy signs. Using the company’s proprietary online tools, customers can design, proof, and buy signs, banners, magnets and more in less than five minutes, from anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, at any time, 365 days a year. With BuildASign.com™’s innovative production system, each customer’s unique sign is produced in an efficient, high quality manner and is delivered to the customer’s door in an average of 3-5 days

Have you thanked a soldier lately?

Today is National Military Appreciation Day. Do you know a soldier’s email address? Send him or her a nice e-card thanking him/her for his/her service and support! American Greetings has a nice selection in their Celebrate the Date section.

Also, don’t forget that the Friday before Mother’s Day (tomorrow!!!) is Military Spouse Appreciation Day!

(x-posted to my blog)

My Frequently Used & Bookmarked

Here are a few entries from the Soldiers’ Angels forums that I keep bookmarked and refer to now and again. These may be useful to Bama Angels who’ve adopted a soldier:

• Where is my soldier located?
• How to Find out More about your Adoptee
• Care package suggestions
• Themed Care Package Ideas List
• Important Phone Numbers & Sites for Shipping
• Customs Forms Are Online
• Flat Rate Boxes (new!)
• website for free return address labels
• Getting more involved

Reminder: Magnolia Festival

Good morning! This is a quick reminder that I will be running a booth at Gardendale’s Magnolia Festival this upcoming Saturday, April 19th, from 10am to 5pm. I will be handing out information on Soldiers’ Angels to anyone who’s interested and giving out coloring pages and stickers to kiddies. If you’re so inclined, please feel free to come by and say ‘Hello!’

For information, a schedule of events and directions, visit www.MagnoliaFestival.org

I look forward to meeting some of you!

Get your kids involved!

My daughter loves drawing pictures for my soldier and his platoon to enjoy. I’m willing to bet that many of you out there that have young’uns do the same.

I was reading on the Soldiers’ Angels blog just now about getting kids involved by printing and coloring an adorable Family Circus cartoon.

I know I’ll be printing out several copies in the morning for my daughter and her friends to color and decorate. How about you?

Soldiers’ Angels 101: Reminders

One angel emailed me this morning, it seems she was having trouble remembering when she had or hadn’t emailed her soldier, and she was looking for suggestions as to how to remember this important task and perhaps organize her duties a bit. Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m a forgetful type too. I get busy and time escapes me, I know I’m not alone in this. We all get busy but we should never neglect our adopted soldiers!

I’ve found it’s helpful to setup a “nag” to remind me each week. For example, every Monday morning I have both my Google Calendar and my Outlook at work nag me to write that afternoon. Tuesday mornings, I have another nag set to remind me to mail out the letter. (Or, in the extreme case that I was so busy I forgot to write, to write it!) Google Calendar is a free service and can send you reminders by email, SMS (standard charges will apply!), or popup.

If you are a Mozilla user, there are two apps which may be of interest to you: Sunbird (a stand-alone app) and Lightning (Thunderbird plugin). Both are free, and perform basically the same tasks as Google Calendar and Outlook’s calendar feature.

There are a TON of free reminder services if you would prefer an alternative to the above.

There’s a wide world of free tools and technology out there just waiting for us, so let’s put it to good use!

Send a greeting card to a soldier

Special thanks to Greta @ Hooah Wife for spreading the word about this!

The US Postal Service has partnered with HBO for the promotion of John Adab’s series about John Adams. You go onto the website and create your letter, and it will be mailed out for free. The letters will be First-Class Mail postmarked with the Power of the Letter cancellation mark. A pretty cool concept, but pity we’re only just now finding out about it! (ends this month)

Link: http://beta.cardstore.com/poweroftheletter.jsp