A Worthy Cause

Baen Books is pretty awesome. Not only do they publish my friend Sarah Hoyt, they also do this:

Over the last 5 years, “Operation Baen Bulk” has supplied comfort items and unusual requests from deployed troops. With a reduction in new deployments, we would like to turn our attention this year to soldiers recovering from battlefield injuries. Many of us are current and former military, and are well aware of the welfare and morale issues for recovering soldiers. This year, we are working on raising $5,000 to buy eBook readers to supply to several Medical Treatment Facilities at regional bases. The MTFs are often forgotten or in the shadow of the larger facilities such as Walter Reed and San Antonio Military Medical Center, but they are very important sites for the long rehabilitation process that soldiers must endure when recovering from deployment-related injuries.

All too often, reading material donated to MTFs consists of magazines and “romance” books. Therefore we are raising funds to purchase new eReaders, and then pre-load those readers with over 100 free titles from our friends at Baen Books – primarily “hard” science fiction, space opera and military adventure fiction by authors such as Ringo, Williamson, Drake, Weber, Kratman, Hoyt, Correia, and many more. We feel that the selection of fiction on the eBook readers will appeal to soldiers who have seen combat (more so than society magazines and romances!) and will remind our troops that we will always remember and honor their service.

We are trying to raise sufficient funds to purchase, load and send 20 eBook readers each to several MTFs around the country. These items will be provided free of cost to the MTFs and will consist of new eReaders that will be opened and pre-loaded with over 100 titles from Baen Books and selected independent authors.

Please help us in our fundraising efforts. Visit our website for more information and to donate.

They’re still short of their goal and time is running out. So go on and help already.