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My name is Jay Longsworth and I'm an officer for the Rockwall YMCA's Adventure Guides Program in Dallas, Texas. It's a father / son, father / daughter program involving youth in grades K-3. You may have heard of the program as Indian Guides / Indian Princess.

Two years ago one of our dads, a military surgeon, was deployed to Iraq. We put together a project where our boys raised money helping their dads around the house. Rake leaves, clean the garage, wash the car, etc. The boys raised $5.00 each. We purchased 50 soccer balls with the money. Each boy got to write his name on 3 of the balls. We sent 25 balls to Balad and 25 balls to Baghdad. When an injured Iraqi child was brought to the military hospital, the doctors would hand the balls out. The surprising thing about this project was that it wasn't the kids that were affected the most, it was the doctors. They often wrote that the only happiness they saw amongst the horror was seeing a little kid light up when they were offered a ball.

One of the doctors that was involved in Iraq contacted me last week. He is now the Commander of a hospital in Afghanistan and wants us to send more soccer balls which we are going to do. We're getting a lot more kids involved and are expanding the program to 200- 400 balls. He also has requested that we send kites. He wrote that when the Taliban was in power it was against the law to fly a kite. It was considered frivolous activity and you could be severely punished. He says that every time he leaves the compound he sees kids flying kites made out of anything they can get their hands on: Trash bags, torn clothes, anything. What I'd like to know is if you would be interested in helping us buy inexpensive, but good quality kites at cost so we could send 100 - 200 along with the balls. Even if you can't help us directly, could you help us get in contact with one of your suppliers? Any assistance you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

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New Tech Kites donated some kites and the kids from the YMCA purchased a bunch themselves. A few months later Jay forwards us the following email.

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Dear New Tech,

It’s been a long time since we started our project to get soccer balls and kites to Afghanistan. Because of the recent increase in insurgence activity, the doctors have not been able to venture out to give items to the kids. Attached are the first kite pictures we’ve received. I think they’re great. I want to thank you again for your support with our project. There is no way we could have sent such high quality kites. I’ll continue to send pictures as I receive them. The story behind the photos is attached below in the email from Dr. Chris to DR. Rich

Jay

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Jay,

Here are some pictures taken by Dr. Chris Scharenbrock of the US Air Force. I have not been able to get out much but I knew he was going and he volunteered to distribute them and take pictures for me. I think they look great.

Rich

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Hi Rich,

Thanks for letting me be a part of the gift to the children on this last VMO. The children were thrilled with their presents. Unlike many of the children in the local area, these children didn’t beg and were very polite. I think the pictures tell the story best. I’m not sure if the pictures caught all the names, but needless to say, the kids back in Texas made a big difference towards improving relations in the Afghanabad district. The only bad thing was that it was a windless day and the kids weren’t able to fly the kites.

Chris

Lt Col Christopher G. Scharenbrock, USAF, MC

Senior Medical Officer, Qalat PRT, Afghanistan

New pictures of your kites in Afghanistan. The soldier in the photos is LtCol Chris Scharenbrock. He’s an Air Force doctor. Dr. Rich has not been allowed to leave his base due to security issues concerning his rank and position. Rich has enlisted help from Chris to hand out the soccer balls and kites because he is sent out in the field quite often. The story behind the photos in attached below Rich’s to me

Enjoy
Jay

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Jay,

Below is an e-mail from Chris Scharenbrock and attached are several photos of kites going out to kids. Thank you for the opportunity to do this. It is good for the population and the Soldiers.

Rich

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Hi Rich,

Managed to get one of the kites up about 200 yards in the air as part of the marketing campaign for the VMO to DayChopan. This of course distressed the Navy Master Chief who for some reason thought it made us more of a target (as though the Taliban didn’t already know exactly where we were). In any case, the kids were thrilled, though most had probably never seen a kite before and needed instruction in how to use one! The first yellow kite was gifted twice as the boy received it and then decided not to take it. Also my personal favorite—me riding a bike (probably the first one ever!) in Hazerbuz.

Talk to you soon,
Chris
Lt Col Christopher G. Scharenbrock, USAF, MC
Senior Medical Officer, Qalat PRT, Afghanistan