This post will remain at the top for a couple of days or until you all run out of money.

Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers.  Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the ‘Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse. The experience of CPT Charles “Chuck” Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important this voice-controlled software can be to a wounded servicemember’s recovery.

To ensure that KisP is acknowledged as a force in the world of fundraising, we’ve decide to bring a little fun to the Army team.

[sorry friends, altho we love ALL of our armed forces we just HAD to GO ARMY!!!! (And don’t worry, I’m going to give someone a little hard time that our Coast Guard wasn’t included...ahem.) SK]

Here’s how it works Although donating money to a worthy cause such as this is rewarding by itself, getting neat stuff is so much more fun. So, At least a couple of us will be putting things up for auction, setting a minimum bid and letting you go after it. There are obviously two ways to participate. You can just bid on items you can’t live without, or you can actually put an item up for auction. One other simple thing you can do is get the word out to our Army teammates. The more the merrier!

The rules are simple:

For people wishing to donate items (Auctioneers)
1. Pick an item to donate and decide what your minimum bid will be.
2. Email with a description of your item and the minimum bid.
3. Your item will be posted and the fun will begin.
4. At the close of the auction, email the above address with the item, the winning bid and the name of the winner.

For people wishing to bid (Buyers):
1. Leave a comment on this post, naming the item you desire and how much you’ll donate to own it.
2. Once the bidding is closed, make your donation and provide the Auctioneer with proof (like your Paypal receipt).
3. All disputes will be handled bewteen the buyer and the Auctioneer (Sondra and I don’t have time to don the Wapner robe).

All Auctions will close at precisely 11:59, CST on Monday night. I don’t think we have the energy to keep it going until the 11th.

[still working on this part....gonna TRY and keep it up until Friday...the auction part… but you know how THAT goes....so bid and donate accordingly....donations will be accepted at ANY time, however! SK]

Easy, huh? If anyone would care to donate a little time to help us keep this thing straight, we’d be eternally in your debt.

Seriously, this can be fun, and a good way to get rid of a piece of clutter or two and I’ll even start it off.

Matt is offering:
Item: An autographed copy of Victor Davis Hanson’s, Between War and Peace (Lessons from Afganistan to Iraq). It’s a paperback, but one of those nice, bigger ones.
Minimum Donation: $15.00

Item: An autographed (hardcover) copy of Bob Dole’s, Great Presidential Wit
Minimum Donation: $15.00

Sondra (and hopefully many others) will be here soon with more fabulous items.

And now we come to the extra-ordinary very special offering from our own Sierrahome.

A few of you all are aware of John’s beautiful pictorial montage/slide show productions that are made personally for many of our beloved service people. All that’s required of the bidder is the use of 30-50 chosen photographs (digital and or scanned copies) of choice photos relating to their subject and their choice of music. We’re going to offer this on a tiered scale:

Send proof of donation (PayPal receipt, all personal info deleted of course) to: and then you can begin correspondence with John and get your project started!

Of course straight up donations will be most appreciated but we thought we’d have a little fun and sweeten the pot. (Added to The Sunday Drive)

Update! Here’s a brief example of John’s work (right-click and Save As). Fantastic stuff.