Dear Beanie makers of The United States of America,

Since the day light time savings, somehow my thoughts are being outside and playing with outdoors. And time I should be spending indoors is being spent sleeping and escaping from the things I should be doing. I call this transitional seasonal period. It may apply to many of you as well at this time of the year. The spring sprung and everything new starts to grow and you would like to catch up the change from winter still to new season.

All that in my mind, the thought came to me about TIME that so many of you volunteers are spending with this Operation Beanies for Service Members. The OBFS is spreading its wing faster than one can establish its own root. Fortunately, each wing is covered and handled by capable hands at this time.

Since the birth of the OBFS on December 2004, we have accomplished a lot of things. As of May 15, 2005, we have grown to 200 volunteers in Orange County, California, seventy-one volunteers in Kennewick and Benton, Washington (state), a few in Ohio, Missouri, and Kentucky. We have collected approximately 3,000 Beanies and distributed about 1,000 of them. I will try to deliver the balance in this month of May. It happened to be Month of Armed Forces and May 30th is Memorial Day.

Another exciting news is you will be able to read our News Flash #003 on-line soon at http://www.operationbeanies.org/.

I cannot believe what is going on in front of my eyes every week. The progresses we are making together are making me unbelievable state of mind. I am not afraid to take responsibilities, rather I may be afraid of overwhelming loving, thoughtful, and warm supports that I am getting from all of you.

Now to come back to thought of the time again. I personally appreciate and thank all of you for your selfless and endless efforts and time spent for this Operation Beanies. The OBFS is going forward by leaps and bounds every week. This baby is growing fast. Not only by individual effort but also many well organized organizations like senior centers and churches in South Orange County. I would like to see the North Orange County participations in near future.

The over all progress of OBFS in this short time is far beyond my expectation. As I watched OBFS grew from one-cell ameba to multi-cell intellectual, productive entity with good heart in short five months, I am confident that our immediate goal of 10,000 beanies is obtainable in time. And, beyond that, there is 1,000,000 beanies lay and all the service members in the Armed Forces will have one beanie in their hands by us all.

So as one volunteer will say, “use our active mouth to spread the word of OBFS and move your active hands to create your beanies.” And, please remember that our loving thoughts are connected with our loving hearts. We will cross the messages and will achieve our goal together.

As General Michael A. Dunn wrote us and told us that our beanies are boosting our service members wellness and morale.

The Gift of your time is so precious and valuable. I thank you again for all your support of OBFS. And to know the loving thoughts behind this mission is endlessly appreciated by our service members. I will post detail in News Flash and sigh off here with the Mission Statement I just finished writing for web site.