For my daughter's 8th birthday, we decided to have a boot camp birthday which would allow a greater range of children to attend (last year was a Disney Princess Party).  I made invitations from camouflage paper and envelopes. At the top was Casie's Boot Camp Birthday and then the child's name under that (ATTN: Private Henderson). The body: Your mission, should you choose to accept it is to report to basic training at the Henderson Military Base, address, date and time. Uniform will be issued upon arrival. Please arrive wearing the enclosed dog tag with your Code Name.  Please be prepared to run Basic Training drills testing accuracy, survival, agility, endurance, strength and balance skills. You will also participate in other Survival Games. You will be wet, tired and dirty by the time you complete your mission, so please bring a towel and change of clothes. Dinner and Birthday Rations will be served.  Please RSVP to the Base Commanders at (PHONE$) no later than 8/4/07.  We put TOP SECRET on the bottom.  We had dog tags for each child with their code name that went in with the invitation.  The envelope was addressed to the Private and had CONFIDENTIAL stamped along the bottom of the envelope.  We contacted a local organization: Operation Adopt A Soldier/Project Yellow Ribbon who sends care packages to soldiers overseas. We printed out an item list of things the soldiers requested and put that in with the invitations along with a letter to the parents explaining that Casie decided to have the children bring items to donate to the troops in place of receiving birthday presents.  We sent the invitations out to the kids, but also sent the letter and item list to friends and family members to help donate. My husband and some friends built an entire obstacle course for the kids that was in our front yard and went through the side woods.  It included tires to run through, an over/under obstacle, large log as a balance beam, stuffed dummy for drag the soldier, tunnel to crawl through and a mini course through the woods that included logs to jump over, a pull-up bar and trees to go under. We had flags all over and a Support Our Troops" flag.  I made a sign that said "Henderson Military Base" and put that out front. When the kids came we ran them all through the course where they were timed and scored.  Half of them went through and the other half made cards to send overseas to our troops. They also had a water grenade fight. The LOVED the course and wanted to keep going through that.  We also took them on a nature hike through our mountain.  They had pizza chips and dip lots of drinks and we had cupcakes and make your own sundaes.  While they were eating we gave out prizes for 1st & 2nd place in the obstacle course for both boys and girls (which were camouflage lunchboxes filled with snacks (green - boy pink - girl) and camouflage school supplies (green - boy pink - girl). We also gave camo backpacks to the girl and boy that brought the most items for donation.  Each child received a certificate graduating from boot camp and received participation ribbons. Many of the children did not want to leave and quite a few asked if they could come back the next day.  Operation Adopt A Soldier was so impressed with Casie's generosity that they sent out emails to families of soldiers.  She received many many cards from families and from soldiers overseas that thanked her for her generosity. Some of the letters were truly emotional.  She received gifts from soldiers and from their families which was totally unexpected and so very wonderful of them all.   We put all of the cards and pictures on foam boards for everyone to see at the party. We had a soldier come to the house a few days before her party just to thank her and gave her a poster medal and wings.  She received a certificate and medal from the Army National Guard Youth Division for her generosity. We had an Army National Guard Sergeant at the party filming and interviewing people.  A local newspaper came to the party and ran an article on it the next day. We ended up raising $500 and 30 large boxes of items to ship over to our troops.  We brought all the stuff to Operation Adopt A Soldier's pack-up day where we helped pack up everything we had donated. BUT they had one more surprise for Casie at the pack-up.  A soldier drove from MA who was part of the 466th ASMC to present Casie with a certificate thanking Casie for what she did and also with an American Flag that was flown over their base in Iraq in her name on August 11th 2007. It was a truly moving experience. The support we received was totally overwhelming.  Casie ended up in 2 more newspapers and on the local news.  We have since then adopted 4 soldiers who receive little or nothing from home and continue to volunteer with OAAS for pack-ups and other events that help raise money to be able to send our soldiers care packages overseas. If anyone is interested in adopting a soldier or donating to OAAS their website is www.operationadoptasoldier.com.  "