We are a group of American citizens who have a common goal to support our troops who defend our way of life by putting their own lives on the line every day. The Brookings-Harbor Red Shirts originally formed as a group of friends who banded together and decided to meet and to wear our red shirts every Friday to show our united support for our sons and daughters in the military.

We began this small gathering at the end of June in 2006. During our second meeting we were talking about our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and thought it would be a good idea if we all donated a dollar or two each week and when we had enough money saved we would buy military phone cards and send them to various troops overseas. We wanted to do more than just wear our red shirts.

It’s incredible what free American citizens can do when they feel a passion for something. Soon we were getting questions from visiting vacationers and other non group members who saw all our red shirts and asked if we were a motorcycle group. When we explained who we were and our purpose for being together we were able to generate even more interest in the Red Shirts.

We recommend to like-minded individuals to start your own red shirt group in your own cities and towns. You can choose your own meeting place, a church, a school, a club, a lounge. We’re in America, and we have the freedom to choose, and we can thank our veterans and our soldiers for that. We get address of some of our local troops and we try to support them by sending packages to them. We also have adopted a few groups of soldiers that we communicate with regularly and to whom we also send packages on a regular basis. Otherwise, we go each week to the websites penpalsforsoldiers.com or anysoldier.com and we check through all the military groups, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, and find troops to support.

We mail all of our items in USPS flat rate boxes that cost just 11.95 when mailing to an APO or FPO number. The small boxes cost 9.85 to mail. You can go to the USPS website and get these flat rate boxes for FREE. We do not abuse this privilege, and order only the boxes that we need and will use. Troops don’t mind if you send them magazines you have around the house, or books etc. We do not send them used clothes and items made with pork are not permitted.

We have been well received at our local businesses where we purchase items to send. We have simply explained who we are and what we are doing, and the community usually responds very nicely. People are basically generous and have big hearts, and are willing to do whatever they can to help support our troops. We want our group and our purpose to continue until we see all of our troops in harms way back home again. We affirm to wear our red shirts every Friday and we affirm that every donation will go to support our troops by sending them the things they ask for and need. 

As of April 24th, 2009, we have sent 3320 boxes of food, hygiene, comfort items and letters of support to our troops.  We have a Pay Pal link to our web page for those of you who have no local means of supporting our troops and wish to give them a gift. We have had the pleasure of welcoming home several of our local troops after their tours in Iraq or Afghanistan and we have had emails and letters from a number of troops to whom we have sent packages. These are special and heartwarming because they have so much to do and still they take time to thank us for caring and sending them things. We have also had the heartbreak of hearing of the death and injuries of some of our adopted troops. For all of our troops, we continue to pray.

Our mission for the Brookings-Harbor Red Shirts is simply to support our troops in any way we can; first, by making others aware by wearing our red shirts every Friday, and second by sending requested items to our troops every week. All donations are used to purchase and send items to our Soldiers. We unofficially have about 50+ participating members now who were spawned from a small gathering of about 6 American citizens. We try to keep everything simple, we support our troops, anyone can donate and we mail packages and phone cards every week as funds permit.

We are all Americans and live and enjoy our freedom and liberty because our military goes before us. Check out our web page our town and our flag.

AMERICA, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

Signed, Frank Muller

The Brookings - Harbor Red Shirts 

www.brookings-harbor-redshirts.org