support the troops

Support the Troops

In 1991 the United States launched Operation Desert Storm to aid Kuwait. I wanted to do something to show support for the men and women in the armed forces who served in this effort. I wanted to create a t-shirt with a message and print up a few to give to friends. I illustrated two designs, one with a serious theme and the other a cartoon. Attending the police academy at this time to become a reserve police officer, I brought the drawings to school one evening to show my friend Bob. He thought they were great and started showing them to the other cadets. Everyone loved them and asked when they could get t-shirts. Wow, I was only going to print up a dozen. Somewhere over the course of that evening the idea came up to sell the t-shirts and raise money for charity.

My wife, Edrianna, and I started to take orders from people we knew, including vendors we dealt with thru our work, friends and co-workers and the police and sheriff's agencies in our county.

The orders rolled in. We were fortunate to have a contact in the screen printing business that got the ball rolling fast and was willing to start the job with a minimum deposit. This turned into a major community event.

We picked the USO as the receiving charity and raised over 5,000 dollars thanks to everyone's efforts and especially Edrianna's for the administration, organization and distribution the t-shirts. I pretty much created this project and then dumped it in her hands. What a trooper!

Let's all pray that all wars will someday end and peace will prevail.

This illustration was created for a t-shirt to support the efforts after 911. We raised over 800 dollars and gave it to Red Cross.

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