Grati-Tuesday 29th Aug 2023

 

Happy Tuesday Friends!

Another collection of beautiful thank you letters this week. 

Hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did!!

Grab a cuppa, sit back and enjoy some well deserved gratitude!

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Hello Anne Hu,

Thank you so much for my awesome laundry bag! Please pass on my thanks to Keryn, Inge, Deb K, Jenny W, and Pennie T for their contributions to the project. It is beautiful. You are all very talented!

I hadn't heard of Aussie Hero Quilts (and Laundry Bags) until I received mine at our final camp before the games this weekend. What a brilliant idea! I was blown away at receiving mine, and I can only imagine the warmth and comfort they bring to our fellow veterans.

We were issued all of our kit for the games at this last camp, so I came home with a huge kit bag full of all sorts of things. I have one child, a 16 year old daughter, and she cheekily went plundering through it to check it all out. As she dove in and rummaged about in it, the first thing that caught her attention was my laundry bag. She grabbed it out, looked it over, and immediately asked me about it. She thinks it's 'ever so clever'. My husband laughed and asked me if I had been issued a sleeping bag? He reckons I'll fit in it! I have attached a photo for you of me holding it up (my hair's still wet from swimming training!).

Once again, thank you so much for my brilliant laundry bag. And thank you so much for your on-going support of wounded, ill, and injured veterans through this wonderful charity. I'm truly touched to have received this gift.

Thank you,

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Dear Jan-Maree,

A massive thank you to you and all your team for the effort and commitment to provide us all with beautiful Laundry Bags. The smiling and happy faces on all the competitors' as their bag was presented to them was brilliant and a joy to watch. I could tell that the team appreciated your gift based on the conversations, it generated a lot of discussion about the different designs and the high quality of the needlework, there was loads of positive feedback to the gift they received.

I wish you and your team all the very best and thank you for your generosity and time involved with making these beautiful gifts.

Thank you for your Service.

Kindest regards,

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Dear Barbara W,

I would like to thank you very much for the amazing laundry bag that you made for me for the Invictus games. I was so humbled to receive such an extraordinary piece of work. It means so much to me to have people like yourself go out of your way, use your valuable time and put others first.

I served in the ADF for just under 30 years and it still amazes me how much their public shows support for us. I was lucky enough to receive both a laundry bag and a quilt whilst on two of my 16 deployments and it was such an amazing thing to receive. The work of the Aussie Hero Quilts and all of you ladies is in the finest Australian spirit and once again I thank you so very much.

I will use the bag with pride whilst in Germany competing and I will endeavour to get some photos to send to you.

Once again, I thank you so very, very much for the amazing bag and I will treasure it always. You are an amazing person and I wish you all the best.

My kindest regards

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Good morning Shirley D,

I cannot thank you enough for the amazing laundry bag I received today! This has been the highlight of my week I love it and I have some very jealous nieces and nephews with the bluey design.

Victoria is a great place. I did my training in Crib Point and have some family in Melbourne.

I can’t say I know too much about golf but my brother and dad play it, I have played once or twice and safe to say I am terrible at it.

I can understand how you raised so much for the RSL with your incredible work! I am so happy with my laundry bag.

I have to run back to work but before I return I want to thank you again for you amazing work. Items like this increases morale for so many people and makes such a difference. I am truly grateful and cannot thank you enough. Thank you for  your service to the community and for what I believe is the most important job of them all being a teacher, mother and grandmother!

Stay safe and well

Many thanks

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Hello Heather B, 

I have just received my laundry bag and I am blown away by it.

A massive thank you from me.

Kindest regards

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(These following 2 letter are from the same recipient regarding receiving both the quilt and laundry bag) 

Hi Laurie C and AHQ Friends,

 

Received the laundry bag this week! The packages where waiting for us when we pulled alongside Fleet Base West again, which was perfect considering the designs were for the kids. And, my, it’s just brilliant. I really appreciated your letter also to give some additional context to the background story behind it.

 

I had a smile from ear to ear when I opened the package. It’s my first time being offered one of these and it was just wonderful to see the care and thought that went into them. Thanks for the additional heads up about the care for it. I cheekily gave my wife a heads up about the ‘no ironing’ part and she just looked over her glasses at me as if to say ‘do your own ironing buddy’. Hehe.

 

My son asked me to say ‘Thank you for the lovely bag! I really like all of the Pokémon pictured and the colours are great! Thank you for the Sandslash too. He was a great surprise.’

The rest of the Stalwart crew and I  have just arrived home after a three month stint away, followed by Exercise Talisman Sabre. We spent about a month out patrolling the Indian Ocean and then headed east for another couple months to meet up and give some fuel to Aussie, US and Japanese friends out in the Coral Sea. Nothing like being 30-odd meters from another ship, with span wires and fuel line rigging across to our ‘customer ship’, pumping fuel to them as we both sail along. Hard not to get a little charry.

We will be headed off again in about 8 weeks’ time, and will be away for the rest of this year. So the gifts will definitely help the kids to feel that little bit closer to Dad.

 

Thanks again for the gift of time, skill and artistry. It means more than you can imagine.

 

Stay warm this winter and thanks again for your support.

 

Kind Regards,

...

Hi AHQ Friends and Janet D,

 

Received the quilt this week! The packages where waiting for us when we pulled alongside Fleet Base West again, which was perfect considering the designs were for the kids. And, my, it’s just brilliant. I really appreciated your card also to give some additional context to the background story behind it and the artist who volunteered their time, skill and artistry.

 

I had a smile from ear to ear when I opened the package. It’s my first time being offered one of these and it was just wonderful to see the care and thought that went into it. 

 

Your quilt design is just beautiful! My daughter quickly identified all the different characters and went through them all with me. She is inseparable from it already; asking for it when she sits on the couch and wraps herself up in it, or brings it with her and lays it out to sit on to play her games.  

 

She asked me to say ‘Thank you for the blanket! I really love it!

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Good evening Jenni S,

 I hope this email finds you well, I just wanted to say thank you very much for the amazing laundry bag :) I love the colour blue and I absolutely love the Star Wars theme! I look forward to taking it on my next deployment with me. 

I had quite the laugh that it ended up on Stalwart the first time as I have many friends on that ship, thank you so much for all the time and effort that went into making it.

And the fact that you are from Queensland makes me so happy as I am from Bundaberg, Queensland before I joined I look forward to going home again when all my months at sea are over. Thank you for this lovely gift and I am happy to know that age care has wonderful people such as your self working in it as I’m sure many hard days can come from it.

Kind Regards, 

...

Hi Janine C,

Thank you so much for your time in making my Laundry bag.  I loved the patterns, I think my favorite animal would have to be the cute Koala. 

I am on board HMAS Stalwart, which is one of the Navy's auxiliary oiler replenishment ships. I have been on Stalwart for close to 2 years and in the Navy for close to 4. I love to travel and go to amazing ports in Australia and overseas, especially countries that Australians don't normally travel to. 

I grew up in Tasmania, the landscape that you described in your email reminds me of home, but a lot colder being in Tasmania! I joined to Navy out of high school for an adventure and I am happy settled in outside of Perth, Stalwart's home port.

It is an honor to have had Aussie Hero Quilts make me a Dhoby bag, and I will cherish it for my career.

Kind regards,

...

G'day Toni F,

I wanted to let you know your beautiful laundry bag has arrived, and it is simply amazing.  I LOVE IT!

I was very humbled to receive the parcel and your letter within it.  What an amazing life you have lived, and still going strong!!

Whilst I am a West Australian, being in the Army has taken me all over Australia, and as such I have spent some time In Sydney, posted to Holsworthy Barracks near Liverpool. 

Dedication and passion to serve is truly a unique thing, and from the service you have provided to support those in Aged Care is simply remarkable. You should be so very proud of your sacrifice and commitment to bettering those who need it.  Especially our most vulnerable, you are a star and a great human!!

I am glad you met Jan-Maree, what a fortuitous meeting.  As once again, you display the passion and drive to support others, like myself and make a difference in someone's life.  You are amazing and an inspiration yourself, Ma'am.

Me, I have been in the Army 15 years now.  I enlisted later in life, initially as an Army Reserve Soldier and after 18 months of being a Reserve fell in love with everything Army is and does and left my civilian employment and became a Full time Soldier. And I haven't looked back.  I love it. Its a hard, challenging but very rewarding job.  I am proud of what I do, and what we as a team get to achieve.  I am currently on Operation Mazurka, which is the operation that overseas the treaty that was signed between Egypt and Israel and ensures they both continue to comply.  

It is very unique and different operation and one that I am really enjoying.  We work alongside Columbians, Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders, and the British.  Its fantastic.  

I have a partner and daughter who is 4 yrs old back home, currently in Nth QLD.  We are passionate about rescuing animals and as such has two rescue dogs, two rescue cats and a rescue budgie!  A busy house indeed!!  We foster cats and help rehabilitate dogs.  We love it and wouldn't change it.

Well, I best be getting ready for work now.  I want to thank you again for the beautiful laundry bag, its simply incredible.  I am so humbled to have received it and please know that it'll get good use over here and be something I pass on to my daughter as a keep sake for years to come.  

Thank you for what you do and being a part of the AH program, you all make such an incredible difference to our days when we get your parcels and we can never thank you enough.

Take care and again thank you

PS - I've attached a picture of our Mascot SGT Roo, he loves your laundry bag too!  
Here is a little story on SGT Roo and how he came to be the AUSCON Mascot 

here in North Camp  

Roo began his life as a pet at Multinational Force and Observers' (MFO) Check Point 22 (CP22), near Rafa in the north eastern corner of the Sinai peninsula, Egypt, with soldiers from the Fijian Contingent. When CP22 was closed in 2016, the dogs from the camp were moved to Forward Operating Base-North (FOB-N) and placed in the kennels with the intent of re-homing them. Most of the dogs were re-homed to locally employed civilians from the local Bedouin tribes working in FOB-N, but Roo was the last remaining. One Australian Contingent (AUSCON) member, took over responsibility for Roo's care, making daily trips to the kennels to feed and water him. When he was told that Roo was to be euthanized, he applied to the Commander Australian Contingent (COMASC), to have Roo recognized as an AUSCON mascot. The LTCOL approved the request, and on 17 July 2016, Roo became an official member of AUSCON. Roo began living at The Australian Accommodation compound, nicknamed The Billabong, from then and is cared for and loved by each rotation through FOB-N. Roo is also a popular personality among other contingents in the camp, as the only mascot allowed in FOB-N. It is unknown exactly how old Roo is, but the FOB-N Veterinary Technician estimates he was about 3 years old when he came to FOB-N in 2016. Roo was promoted to the rank of CPL, by MFO Forces Commander on 06 Aug 19 and then SGT in 2021.

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Until next week keep your letters, emails and photos coming in.  

Tuesday's would be so totally boring without them!

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