Camp Holloway Discussion Forum - Research Archive - 11/11/00 to 01/21/10

For those interested in 091

Gentlemen,

We have had some very productive meetings and events occur over the
past several weeks and I wanted to bring you up to date.

Three weeks ago Jim Palmersheim, Mike Jackson (the leader of the
wonderfully successful Lakeway Texas community, Patriot Fest and 091
Foundation and Ibot support) and I had the opportunity to brief
approximately 200 members of the Military Offices Association of America ("MOAA) in
Austin, Texas at their monthly meeting.

As a result of Mike Jackson's early work and our presentation, MOAA is
elevating their endorsement of 091 and the IBOT initiatives to the
National Level; the Austin Chapter proposed funding an IBOT and looking at
National to promote the initiative to other Chapters.

Mike Jackson and Mike Boston of Lakeway set up the meeting and briefed
the MOAA attendees on the success of the Patriot Fest in Lakeway,
articulating the role of the 091 Foundation and American Airlines support,
without which, Eric Jordan, Alan Babin, and many other injured service
members to follow, would not have received their IBOT.

I am very pleased to report that Mike Jackson, has accepted the
opportunity to serve on the 091 Board subject to the endorsement of the Board.
Additionally, Donna Lochow, of Lakeway, who has been instrumental in
the Patriot Fund established to provide IBOTs, has accepted the
opportunity to Chair an 091 Foundation committee to oversee distribution of
resources on behalf of injured service members.

As you know, through the initiative of Jim Kuhn, the Young President
Organization ("YPO") has committed a one million dollar donation to
provide IBOTs to wounded service members. We are starting the process of
identifying qualifying recipients, and thus Donna Lochow will bring an
incredible passion and expertise to ensure that the distribution is on
target. Currently the 091 Foundation already has $100,000 in the bank
ready to purchase IBOTs! Some of the YPO members didn't want to wait to
help our injured soldiers!

On the Snowball Express front, I am humbled to report that I have
accepted an invitation to extend my work on behalf of military families by
also joining the Board of Snowball Express ("SBE") (and will serve along
with Jim Palmersheim, Col. Roy White (ret), BG Al Brewster (ret), and
Bill White (Intrepid Foundation, Fisher House) as well as several other
distinguished Board Members to ensure that SBE 2008 is as successful
as SBE 2007.

This past week I made a pitch to Halliburton through a former
colleague, now their Assistant General Counsel, to adopt 091 Foundation,
Snowball Express and Medisend International (Gen. Myers wife, Mary Jo Myers
serves with me on Medisend's International Advisory Board).

The role of the 091 Foundation will expand this year in support of
Snowball and in turn Snowball Express will help expand our 091 Foundation's
public recognition.

I have had several meetings with members of the SBE Board this past
week, and just yesterday, a meeting was held at American Airlines to
discuss support for this years event, things are shaping up for a very good
year for Snowball and 091 Foundation.

SBE has formulated a speaker's bureau (something we should emulate!)
where our volunteers will have an opportunity to present the SBE mission
at the request of various organizations around the Country. As you may
be aware, we had 29 pilots, the majority being volunteers from the
Allied Pilots Association, as well as approximately 50 Flight Attendants
and over 100 other American Airline employees support the SBE 2007. Many
of these individuals have expressed a desire to spread the Snowball and
091 Foundation "Gospel", so we are helping along with the support of
091 to do just that, more to follow as this program develops.

On the education front, we have an assembly planned for April 2008 at
Union Grove Middle School near Fort Hood Texas, headed by Dana Bowman,
once the date is firmed up we will send the itinerary. Our education
folks have designed a classroom piece that will be put to the test later
this year, meanwhile John Allison the former Superintendent of Grapevine
Colleyville, is working with educators in Pennsylvania to collaborate
with us on the 091 Education Front. Unfortunately, due to the recent
political hiccup in December with the Snowball Express Mission, we had no
takers to step up and plan support for the 2 Feb Little Rock Event,
however, Jim has graciously volunteered to assist, and although the event
has been postponed, we are working to put something together later in
the year. Martha Cothren has been apprised and has been able to
articulate an opportunity later in the year.

Gary Lawson (that'd be me) became special outside counsel to the 150
year old Texas Education Agency and its Permanent School Fund and I am
hopeful that I will make great contacts to help us learn how to gain
approval of new history and civics materials for Texas Public Schools.

From a financial perspective, the 091 Foundation is in good shape,
however, I would be remiss if I did not mention the interest free loan of
$10,000 from Jim Palmersheim and Mike Jackson to ensure that our
obligations can be met until additional funding comes in. Both Mike and Jim
along with General Stephenson, Bob Taylor, Bob Frost and myself have all
made cash donations to the 091 Foundation, Jim has devoted untold
hours, and because I have to keep track for my partners, I have contributed
over $90K worth of professional time to our 091 Foundation, without all
these resources, we would not be in the position we are in today.

We have collaborated once again with Martha Lipscomb to assist on the
90 hours of footage filmed during the Journey Home; we have reached a
mutually acceptable agreement which will substantially assist our
education initiatives.

In terms of the video support for the 091 Foundation, we have good news
and not so good news. Hats off to Dave Duquemin for providing some
great footage this past week after a short notice request. Jim and I were
in Colorado Springs, Colorado a few weeks ago and briefed the American
Legion and while we got great coverage, as you saw their very
supportive resolution and newsletter, it could have been much better.

Unfortunately, despite many requests, we have not seen any completed
work product covering the Mckinney Forever Free Event, the Lakeway
Patriot Fest, or the Snowball Express Mission, any of which would have been
extremely valuable during our meetings in Colorado, as well as past
opportunities. In the apparent absence of any reasonable likelihood of the
material being produced, I have twice requested copies of all the raw
footage and we will have to pursue other avenues for it's completion, I
will keep you updated.

Regarding the need to update the web site, a professional web
development and marketing company, the Springboard Agency, located in the DFW
metroplex has committed to do the heavy lifting here and is working with
Jim to establish and host a new home page, the site is content driven,
so once again the importance of the video work product can not be
understated. More on the Web site to follow.

In the meantime, I am pleased to announce that we have 1000 (plus 500
free) New 091 Foundation Patches now on hand. We are also working on
Shirt and coin ideas at this time.

As you know, the State of Colorado declared an 091 Day in 2004 during
the Final Journey. Our presence in Colorado was significant. We are
grateful to Col. Charles Bogle for all he is doing to promote 091.
Again, hats off and thanks to American Airlines for continuing to provide
our essential travel. For the price of two $72 Hotel Room (Jim and I each
ate our costs, which candidly was pretty tasty), this was an
incredible opportunity to continue to garner support for the men and women who
have paid the price of freedom and to help educate future generations
that freedom is not free.

I don't measure what I give versus what I get back for volunteering on
this project but just half of Friday and all day Saturday, if it were
billed, would have generated $2400 in income for my partnership, I offer
this only to put in perspective what the 091 project means to me.

Thanks

Gary

Gary B. Lawson