Thinking Day has caused me to spend a lot of time thinking this year. First of all, our normal location for our annual event is not available this year. Normally, we use the school cafeteria, but this year another group is using that facility. I am very glad that I dreamed up a "plan B" because we have more troops than ever opting to participate this year.

Plan B was to find a number of semi-empty rooms on campus. I do believe we have every single space available reserved. I actually really like "plan B" a lot because we are devoting each space to a different country/region/theme. One room will be transformed into Mexico with Mexican food, Mexican SWAPS, and a Mexican game. The leaders in that room are planning music and decorations, neither of which would have worked in the cafeteria.

Another room is devoted to Europe with European games, food, and SWAPS. China and Japan are sharing a very large room for a combined Asian experience. Our littlest troops, the Daisies, are sharing a room to do an International Frienship Village. They will be earning their "Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout" petal and will be highlighting one aspect of the overall theme of Thinking Day theme for this year, which is Friendship.

The oldest troop participating is mine (it seems like yesterday that these young ladies were Daisies.... but that's another article). The Junior troop is doing a room devoted to the Middle East. We will be serving Lebanese food and making SWAPS related to Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, and Israel. Lebanon (like Mexico) is one of the focus countries for Thinking Day this year. (The other countries are Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and the Czech Republic). We happen to have a family of Lebanese descent who was willing to share a part of their heritage.

The Iraq portion of the room, however, was selected to spend some time talking about our adopted soldier. Recently, his unit has suffered numerous casualties, and we want to kick our package mailing into high gear to give him a bit of a morale boost. I have created a kid-friendly packet that discusses Iraq and the war on their level. In addition, the kids will learn a lot about our soldier as a person, as well as where he is based and what his job includes. Each girl will be bringing an item to pack into a care package, and we will be sealing them up and addressing them. Various families are sponsering the mailing of this first wave of packages. We use the flat-rate boxes so the shipping fee is set, regardless of the weight of the package.

In addition, I have created about a dozen coloring pages for the girls to color and send off to our soldier as well. I found quite a few free coloring pages online with patriotic themes, and I also went searching for pages that highlighted the flags and monuments of of Arizona, Texas, and South Dakota. Those states are where we live, where our soldier lives when he is not in Iraq, and where both he and I grew up, respectively.

The Middle East room and the recent casualties facing our soldier had certainly given me a lot to think about this month. As before when we adopted a soldier, being connected to a specific person has brought the conflict closer to all of us involved in this project. The casualties are no longer just names, but men in our soldier's unit. I also pay closer attention to the news when they are reporting on attacks, particularly when it involves Apache helicopters, which our soldier flies.

As I alluded, this is our second adoption of an soldier in Iraq. Our previous soldier came home safe and sound. I highly recommend this personal connection as a particularly rewarding experience. If you have a personal connection with a soldier as I have both times, I recommend going that route. If you don't, there are many organizations that can link you to a soldier. Check the links below to get started. The final link is actually a vast listing of groups that are focused on creating one-on-one connections with our deployed soldiers. There certainly has to be one organization that would suit your needs.