Creative Ideas

I chose to write this blog not about Coastal, and not about a particular item, or even a specific way to produce an item, but instead about a company located right around the corner from our office in St. Louis, Missouri. This blog is a little different than anything we’ve ever written before and I hope you all enjoy reading it just as much as I did writing it.

Before I get started, I want to start by saying what this organization offers will touch everyone reading this in some way. We all know someone that has been, is currently enlisted, or will be enlisted in the military in the future. So, with that in mind, let me tell you a little about them.
Sweet Dreams Pillows was started and is run by John and Linda Stoeffler. It’s a non-profit organization that makes pillows for children of any family whose father or mother is on active duty and currently deployed.

The Sweet Dreams Picture Pillow Project began with their first pillow shipment in September of 2008. Back then, it was just like any other small organization – they started with just shipping 33 pillows to approximately 16 different families. Their organization name and their cause spread like wild-fire. By the end of 2011 they had shipped 1,753 pillows to approx 958 families!

Being totally non-profit, all of their financial support comes from donations received from friends, civic and veterans organizations and the business community. Just to name a few… Joann’s Crafts, the USPS, Schnucks, Office Depot, and, of course, Coastal Business Supplies.

All of the above-mentioned companies offer some type of discounts, savings or donations. The USPS offers free boxes to ship those pillows. Schnucks offers bags for them to wrap their pillows in before shipping to ensure they arrive safely. Office Depot offers a discount on ink and printer papers. Joann’s Crafts offers a discount on fabrics and we offer them a discounted rate for the transfer paper they use to get the image onto the pillows.

With the help of friends and family, who John and Linda like to call “The Sweet Dreams Pillow Platoon,” they get all of these pillows printed, pressed, stuffed, sewn and shipped. The only compensation the Pillow Platoon receives is the gratitude they carry with them from helping such a wonderful and selfless cause.

Take a look at their website: www.pillowprojectusa.com. You can read testimonials that will bring a tear to your eye (trust me, I know from personal experience), a video of an interview John did with a local news station, more information about their organization and how to get in touch with them.

Below is a poem that has been applied to a pillow that was received by one of the children of a father who had been deployed (I’ll pause while you grab a tissue):

“I am a small and precious child, my Dad’s been sent to fight.
The only place I see his face is in my dreams late at night.
He will be gone for far too long for my young mind to keep track.
I may be sad, but I am proud because my Daddy’s got your back.”
– Author Unknown

And here are just a few of the glowing testimonials they have received:

The curse of deployment hit on month 2 this time and it’s been insane. The pillows have tremendously helped both my boys (age 2 &4). My two-year-old squeezes and giggles and gives DaDa Kisses! And what a difference it has made for us on this deployment (#2 for our four-year-old and #1 for our two-year-old).
A very grateful Navy wife conquering deployment #7.
– Amanda M.

This one came from the father himself, a Marine serving in Afghanistan:
“My name is Mark and my wife forwarded me the correspondence between you guys. I am a Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps and have been deployed to Afghanistan for about 3 ½ months now. I have been in the Marines for nearly 19 years and leaving your family for deployment gets harder every time. With that being said, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the volunteer service that you provide for military members and their families around the world.  As you can see from the picture below (he included his photo) the pillows that you made for my children have given them great joy and it has given me the feeling that we are closer together even though we are physically separated.
I hope that you guys know that what you are doing means a lot to us and we thank you for everything that you do. Please pass this onto Kathy (Kathy is one of our volunteers who helped sew the pillows for Mark’s children) and the entire Pillow Platoon as well.”
– Mark & Kathy

These are just a couple I wanted to share with you.  There’s many more on the organization’s website. I encourage you to check it out. I’m sure they will touch you just as they did me.

I can say I have had the pleasure to meet both John and Linda personally. I was blown away when I found out about their organization. What a great service, not only to their local community and this great nation we live in, but worldwide.

I’m not sure they realize just how many people really do appreciate them and how many lives they have touched. Maybe this blog can somehow help as a reminder of that or at least be just a little “thank you” to John and Linda, and to all of the Pillow Platoon, for EVERYTHING they do!!

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