When Robin Zell, the creator of Bragelets charm bracelets, saw a message earlier this year through an e-mail network for home-based working moms about care baskets for military spouses, she had to get involved.
Zell, who lives in Batavia, Ill., has since sponsored two care baskets, which each include a customized Bragelets with yellow ribbons and American flags, gift certificates for a bracelet with the soldier's name on it, bath lotions and scented candles. The baskets will be sent to wives whose husbands are stationed in the Middle East.
"I am a former military spouse," Zell wrote in an e-mail about her involvement. "We were stationed overseas and my husband was deployed to Desert Storm in 1991."
The "Help a Spouse" care baskets are the brainchild of Herndon resident Marybeth Henry, who creates each basket at home while her children are in school.
"I took an idea and put a little twist on it. I have a friend who is doing gift baskets for the soldiers overseas," said Henry, the executive director of WAHMfest (The Work At Home Moms Expo). "I thought of all the spouses at home ... basically being single parents while their loved one is away."
HENRY USED the e-mail network to solicit sponsors for the baskets and to seek nominations for deserving military spouses. Since launching the effort in January, Henry has received requests for six baskets, so far all women. She uses decorative tins, which she fills with items provided by the basket's sponsor. WAHMfest then ships the basket to the nominated spouse along with a card that is personalized by the person who did the nominating; or with a generic card in case the nominator wishes to remain anonymous, as has happened with one basket. There is no cost to the nominator or the designated spouse.
"It's nothing big," Henry said of the baskets. "Just something to help them relax a little. I've invited other groups, merchants, to sponsor the baskets so each basket is a little different."
The baskets so far have included "girly" things such as charm bracelets, scented candles and shower gel, however, Henry said she will modify the basket should a military husband be nominated.
Patti Chadwick, whose business PC Publications located in New York, sponsored two baskets and hopes to sponsor two per month as long as there is interest in the project.
"I thought it was a great idea. I wanted to support our military and it has to be scary for the spouses," Chadwick said. "I wanted to provide literature that gave comfort."
Chadwick's company is an online bookstore, so she supplied books on spirituality, parenting and books she has written.
CATHY JOHNS, a founding consultant of Affordable Luxuries in Marengo, Ill., a candle and candle accessories company, has provided candles and nominated her sister-in-law for a basket. Her brother-in-law, Michael Johns, is an Apache helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army and was sent to Iraq six weeks after his second child was born in February 2003.
"His wife and two children live in Fort Hood, Texas, and I feel my sister-in-law has done an awesome job holding down the fort while my brother-in-law is away," Johns wrote in an e-mail. "I think this is a fabulous idea and I want to thank Marybeth Henry for taking charge of this project and giving us all an opportunity to participate."
Henry would like to continue the program as long as she receives nominations, but has no plans to turn it into a moneymaking venture. Along with her duties with WAHMfest, Henry is also involved with Mary Kay Cosmetics.
"Besides WAHMfest and being a senior director with Mary Kay, those are my businesses. This [the care baskets] is my hobby," Henry said. "It's an opportunity to take what I do and turn it into something good for someone else."
So far, Henry, a member of the Herndon Dulles Chamber of Commerce, has used the Internet in seeking nominations and sponsors, but she hopes to involve local Herndon businesses as well.
"Originally, I thought it would be Northern Virginia military moms, but when I put it on the Internet, I got responses from all over," Henry said. "It's hard to tell when, if at all, when the troops are coming home. ... I figured if you're stateside waiting for him or her to come home, you deserve a pat on the back."
That is the underlying reason Henry’s baskets are gaining interest. "I feel all military families should be recognized. I never realized what they go through when their loved ones are shipped out to fight in a war, until it hit home when my brother-in-law left," Johns said.