I am struggling

I have spent the last hour or so checking out links that have to do with crafting for troops. I think there are a lot of great charities out there, but in doing a little reading, it seems like getting gifts to the troops is becoming more complicated, some places are getting more gifts than they can handle, and pointed out that there seems to be something amiss with Soldiers' Angels, who come up on any Google search.

I guess what I was hoping for when I first thought of crafting for troops was more along the lines of care packages more than just crafted items. That's why I was feeling around to see if someone wanted to be a point person if they didn't know how to craft. I kind of envisioned people sending homemade socks or cool ties, and the point person maybe throwing in a phone card or something and sending that stuff off. This may not have been realistic anyway, but hey. Who says you have to picture realistic scenarios?

The only idea I have popping through my head right now is that we ask people to donate $5 to the USO or something like that, and every person who comments that they did so will receive some small token from us, like a red white and blue fun scarf or something like that. We'd track the items sent to donaters. Of course, the problem is that we'd have to go entirely on the honor system and we'd run into situations, I'm sure, where one person would say, "Well, I donated $50 so I should get a blanket and a crocheted car." Etc.

With all of that said, I think the best candidate for us to look at as a group is The Ships Project because there are options for sewers, crocheters, and knitters...socks, slippers, and hats. But I don't know...I am not sure there is enough interest to kind of make a real thrust of it, so maybe we should just leave it that anyone who wants to donate to them can, like we've been doing with all other charities.

I'm up for any ideas. I'm stumped.