Major Chuck Ziegenfuss was the first recipient of a voice-activated laptop from Soldiers’ Angels, a nonprofit organization founded in 2003, which provides support and aid to the members of the five branches of the military and their families. They do this through a legion of Angel volunteers and the goodwill of people like you reading this post.

We’re nearly halfway through the 2011 Valour-IT Campaign. At the top of this page, you can find a daily update of the numbers. Where we are in the overall goal, and how we’re doing branch by branch.

I’ve posted part of a post from Major Ziegenfuss below. I encourage you to click on over and read the rest of his post — How do you eat an elephant?

From Major Chuck Ziegenfuss:

It’s been a long six years, looking back on things. 40 surgeries. Learning to walk. Learning to open and close my hands. Learning to write. Learning to check, and recheck, the temperature of everything before I grab it. Learning how to work a door knob. Learning my physical limitations, and learning the penalties for ignoring them. Many, many painful months of rehab. Narcotics addiction. Becoming a cyborg.

It’s been a long journey, to be sure. From my position, now, it seems like it wasn’t that bad–just something I had do do. From my position, then, it looked like I was going to have to scale the Himalayas with nothing but a bobbin of thread, a highlighter, and a half-empty bottle of hot sauce. It seemed, at times, like the odds were insurmountable–and worse, not worth attempting. I simply didn’t have the tools to try.

You can read the rest of his story here.

Please consider making a donation to this very worthwhile project, so that other wounded soldiers who could benefit from these technologies will be able to do so.

If you wish to donate through Team Air Force, you need only to click the Give now! button at the top of this page in the sidebar. If you would like to make a non-specific donation or donate through one of the other teams, please follow this link — Project Valour-IT.

No donation is too small. Every dollar counts and goes entirely toward the cost of these specific adaptive devices.

Thousands of wounded soldiers have benefited from Project Valour-IT. Sadly, thousands more will need this assistance.

Share the hope.