For those who participated in Red Friday yesterday, my family thanks you.

TrustOnlyMulder over at OfficiallyScrewed.com explains why he’s participating in the Red Friday campaign. His heart is definitely in the right place and I’m all for the wearing of red on Fridays – even if it means I look like a bloated shiney rudolph nose a little worse for wear for the day. However, I just can’t get behind the red ribbon car magnet idea. TrustOnlyMulder explains why he’s supporting a red ribbon over a yellow one this way:

For those who ask “Why not Yellow?”, the response I heard today was that the yellow ribbon is a welcome home ribbon for soldiers. The Red Ribbon/Red Friday campaign is just a way we are showing support to the soldiers and their families. It is likened to friends shaving their heads to show support for a friend with cancer.

Some people have even helpfully posted in the comments where you can find the cheapest red ribbon car magnets.

It’s a nice sentiment, but I really hope too many people don’t buy the red ribbons and instead continue to purchase and display the yellow or camo ones.

Yellow and camo ribbons can be purchased on bases at the Canex or Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) and from Military Kit Shop websites. The money raised from the purchase of these items goes to the military units (when purchased from kit shops), or to the Military Family Resource Centre (when purchased from the MFRC or Canex). The funds are used to directly support military members and their families. Items purchased from Legions provide much needed funding to support our vetrans.

The point is, we shouldn’t be purchasing the cheapest items, or the one with the coolest background story. If we’re really interested in showing our support for our troops and their families, there are things we can do to put our money where our mouth is.

The Red Friday’s clothing campaign is a way of displaying solidarity, but until the funds generated from a red ribbon campaign are turned over to the MFRC, I’ll be continuing to support the yellow ribbon campaign.

Since I don’t agree with the purchase of Support our Troops car magnets from anywhere other than the MFRC, Legions or a Unit Kit Shop, what can you do to show your support you do if you don’t live close to a base?

1. Purchase a yellow ribbon from an MFRC website, such as Edmonton MFRC.
2. Purchase a yellow ribbon from an official Military kit shop, such as the RCR Kit Shop.
3. Purchase t-shirts, ballcaps, magnets, dog tags, lapel pins, etc. from the Canex Web site.
4. Make a donation to deployed soldiers.
5. Send a letter or postcard to any deployed soldier. To send a care package, you must know the name, rank, unit, etc. of the serving member.
6. Purchase a We Support Our Troops lapel pin or magnet (pg 10) from your local branch of any Royal Canadian Legion or order on-line.

Once you’ve done that, consider joining or supporting the invisible ribbon campaign.

h/t owed to Shere Khan over at Dust my Broom

Technorati Tags: support our troops, red fridays, car magnets, MFRC, invisible ribbon

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