Sandy and I would like to wish each one of you a very Happy and Healthy 2009. Hopefully, all of you will have good health and lots of happiness in your home and in your world.

As a Chapter, in 2008, we had another wonderful year. With your help, we were able to bring comfort and warmth to over 2,300 children with a grand total for the Chapter of over 16,000. It is sad that there are so many children within our area that have such needs, but it is only with your love and caring that we can be there for them.

Sandy and I are always looking for new ways to reach more children. This past year we began deliveries to a new Cartersville facility called A Better Way. It is similar to the SafePath organization. Whenever a child needs to be removed from his/her home, the first stop is A Better Way. Sadly, they told us that most incidents happen in the wee hours of the night. Before the child is seen by the Doctor or Advocacy Advisor, etc. he/she selects a blanket to hold and snuggle. There are many other activities that happen at A Better Way .... all are for the betterment of children in need.

As the National Coordinators of the Fallen Hero Project, we continue, in 2009, to be very busy. Our prayers are that this will come to an end soon. Since the war began in Iraq, my statistics show that 4,286 soldiers have died and collectively they had 2962 children. We were able to provide blankets for 2,110 and are currently working on 830 more. Since the war began in Afghanistan, 648 soldiers have died who had 534 children. We were able to provide blankets to 385 of them so far and are coordinating deliveries to another 144.

Project Linus' 400 Chapters across the U.S. have comforted over 2,493,900 children since 1995. If each blanket was an average f 60" long and we laid them end to end, they would stretch 12,469,820 feet or 2,362 miles.

Now before you get worried that we have too much time on our hands if we could figure out something like that, believe us when we tell you that that information was compiled by another Chapter Coordinator and we just decided to share it with you.

Thank you to each one of you for your caring and dedication. Great big Linus hugs to you all.

Marleen and Sandy