July 4th, 2007

News article from 11alive.com

You may not realize this but it's Christmas in July. Not everywhere, but in Douglasville they not only had the usual 4th of July parade, they also took up a collection for Christmas stockings for 20,000 soldiers serving in Iraq.

For the last couple of years, the Patriot Riders have come to Douglasville to help the soldiers angels collect stuff for the troops in Iraq. It started two years ago when the 108th Light Armored from Douglas County went over to fight, everyone one of them got a Christmas stocking full of lip balm, hot chocolate, playing cards, socks, and candy from the Hometown Soldiers Angels.

"We started out just doing it for the our hometown troops and it became a popular project, so we increased last year and we're up to 20,000 stockings now," said Diane Moore, Soldiers Angels.

Moore showed us two rooms full of gifts all ready collected at the Douglasville armory. We watched as people brought more goodies to the tent and as children stopped by to write Christmas cards to the troops.

"It says Merry Christmas to wonderful U.S. soldiers, thank you for all the work you've done for our country," said Mattie Harrison.

Harrison had a special reason she was doing a hand drawn card for the soldiers. "Because I love them," she said.

You can go to the big parades and the big fireworks extravaganzas, but nowhere will you find patriotism as pure and profound as you find it in small-town America. It will take until October to gather enough for 20,000 soldiers.

If you want to help you can go to www.soldiersangels.org or call 770-949-8352.