Greetings Fellow Hikers,

Let me set the stage here. In September, I retired from the US Air Force after 26 years of service to our Great Nation. I since returned to Kuwait and am presently working as a civilian contractor providing support to our proud young men and women. I have the coolest job going. I am the Marketing and Media Manager for all Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR)operations in Kuwait.

I would prefer to keep political discussion out of this thread and keep the focus on doing something cool for the troops. Thanks ahead of time.

Ok, so here is the deal. Our proud men and women going to and coming from Iraq stop through Kuwait for a brief period of time for training and re-dployment. I'm sure Rock remembers his brief visit in Kuwait. Each of our camps have Community Centers--a place where our troops can go and unwind a little bit to blow off a little steam, jump on the internet, make a call home, play a game of pool, throw a round of darts, or just simply just play a friendly game of cards. Many of these facilities are pretty plain and provide the basics with no effort going into the decor.

I just received approval to implement a facility "theme concept". Our very first "theme concept" is "The US National Parks". I have downloaded maps from the NPS website and laid in a custom border, Printed all of the activity pictographs, printed 11 X17 photos and mounted them all on foamboard. We have also created park signs for each park.

One of my featured "parks" is the AT.

If anyone in the Whiteblaze community would like to contribute to bolstering the morale of our proud servicemembers, I have a way you could do exatly that.

We are accepting contibutions of memorabilia, assesories, gear, gadgets to hang on the wall--similar to what you would see in a TGI Friday's, Applebee's, Hard Rock Cafe Etc... I am particularly interested in old things folks may no longer have a use for, but will accpet anything suitable to hang on the walls. I would be looking for any item related to outdoor recreation and not just the AT.

Alright, so if you may be interested in making a contribution, we will print a small placard to hang below the item with your name and hometown to recognize your efforts.

If you may be serious about making a contribution by sending something out, please PM me and I will provide a good mailing address, e-mail address and more specific details. Getting access to the internet is sometimes a challenge, so if I do not respond right away, please be patient, I will send a note back.

If the WB community as a whole would like to jump in and get "special recognition", I can print a special 5 1/2 X 11 placard recognizing the community with the link to the website.

I am also interested in any high resolution photos of any National Park and we will be featuring 3 photos per park--one landscape, one with people, and one of wildlife. Any photos selected to be printed and mounted will recieve photographer credit on the print.

Please feel free to pass this information on to other folks as well. This is turning into a really awesome project and has support from everyone who has seen it.

John P. Pearson
"Wanderingson"