Tote Bags for Kids and Soldiers

I would like to finish up the tote bags if we can this coming Saturday at the quilting workshop. If you have any finished or unfinished tote bags please bring everything to room 223 this Saturday and we will count how many we have, and sew on the handles.
We will be working on quilts also!

Ideas for the tote bags
Give them to friends, neighbors and families within BACC to take home and fill up with:

• School supplies, toys, games for kids. These bags will be handed out by the Univ. of Maryland Medical Center Breathe Mobile in Baltimore. These mobile units go into poor neighborhoods and provide medical attention to kids without medical insurance.

• Books, music, movies, sweats, socks, goodies, for injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital. These bags should include a note from the family filling the bag including a phone number and address. Many soldiers have no family nearby and would appreciate having someone who cares close by.

I found this list on a wounded soldier blog at Walter Reed--this is what they say the need:

• International Phone Card (500+ minutes) $40 If a Soldier doesn't have to buy three of these he/she can usually buy a plane ticket for their family to come see them without having to jump through all the hopes of having to have the Army buy one.
  

• Gas Cards $50 With two of these a Soldier saves enough to pay for a hotel for that family member, or with just one he can afford to pay the cab fare from DCA to Walter Reed. He could even use the gas card to have his family drive him around DC for a week.
  

• Restaurant Gift Card (national chains) The food at the dining facility (DEFAC) is good and it is cheap, but after a while it gets old. A gift card like this goes a long way for a wounded warrior that just wants something "normal" again. And being able to take a family member for dinner goes a long way towards doing that.
  

• Visa Gift Card The District of Columbia isn't cheap. So every dollar that is on that card is one more a Soldier can put back for that rainy day.
  

• DVD movies, and music CDs Life in outpatient can be extremely boring. Hurry up and wait. And wait. Movies go a long way. There is a lending library on post, but after being here for over a year I think I have seen them all. I've rated over a thousand movies on Netflix, and I am still here. So something new is always appreciated. For those that should say we should read more... I do, and even that gets stale after a while.
  

When the bags are filled, they can be brought to the BACC church office. I would appreciate your ideas, please leave a comment here!