OCCC Young Dems Host Bake Sale for Body Armor

The members of the YD group at Oklahoma Community College have been making cookies and headlines with their effort to raise awareness about the lack of body armor ffor soldiers in Iraq. Congratulations to OCCC YD's and their president Jed Green. I have pasted the story from the Daily Oklahoman below...



Student bake sale benefits troops serving in Iraq
By Carrie Coppernoll
The Oklahoman

Soldiers and cupcakes don't usually go together.
But a group of students at Oklahoma City Community College mixed, baked and iced piles of cookies, cupcakes and other treats to help raise money for soldiers fighting in Iraq. Their efforts, "Bake Sales for Body Armor,” are part of a series of fundraisers nationwide designed to help men and women overseas.

"Even if we don't support the premise for the war, we support out troops,” said Jed Green, president of the OCCC Young Democrats, the group that hosted the sale. "Our troops serve and protect us, and we should serve and protect them.”
The national campaign was founded by a military wife with the help of an Iraq veteran, Green said. Though the focus of the campaign is still to buy body armor, the group has also bought other types of equipment, such as radios and medical supplies.

Last year, OCCC students raised about $2,600 from the bake sale and donations, Green said. Hundreds of dollars have come in so far this year. Some volunteers who aren't affiliated with the school donated sweets for the sale, Green said. One retired man gave about 150 cinnamon rolls to the cause. Green himself made about 80 bags of candy pretzels, which sold out quickly. The students didn't price the desserts; they simply asked for a donation. Some people gave a quarter or a dollar. Others gave $20 for a cupcake.

Green said students, staff and the community supported the sale and were glad to see students participating in such a grassroots effort. Even though the war is thousands of miles away, the fighting affects nearly everyone here at home, Green said.

"It seems like just about everyone knows someone over there,” Green said. "I think it's something that's in the forefront of a lot of people's minds.”