'Freedom T-shirts' helping Oklahoma soldiers' families

Most of the shooting has stopped, but the troops are still there. In fact more than half of Oklahoma's National Guard is deployed somewhere. The hardship on the families is significant, and News on

Monday, May 12th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Most of the shooting has stopped, but the troops are still there. In fact more than half of Oklahoma's National Guard is deployed somewhere. The hardship on the families is significant, and News on 6 reporter Rick Wells tells us a couple of local companies are trying to help.

"Mr Klean Car Wash, may I help you.â€ Nancy Duncan's Mr. Klean Car Wash on South Peoria is one of the places in town you can buy a Freedom T-Shirt. Freedom shirts are one of those ideas born out a desire to do something to support the troops. Mike Ward: "I can leave for three days and it puts a strain on my family, imagine being gone for 8 or 9 months." Mike Ward and the folks at ADPRO in Claremore came up with the shirts and decided to distribute the proceeds from sales to three Family readiness groups.

Jody Williams is with the Family Readiness Group for the 245th combat Engineers, her husband is deployed in the Sinai. "One of our goals for our children is to keep our life as normal as possible." The extra money from the shirt sales is helping do that. K&G Texaco operates 14 Star Marts in Tulsa. They heard about the shirts and offered to sell them in their stores. Mark Greer: "There are still a lot of families who have soldiers overseas and the families need help."

So far more than 3,000 of them have been sold all over northeast Oklahoma that equals more than ten thousand dollars available to the Family Readiness groups. And the shirts come in handy this time of year. "Very light and comfortable, a big change."

For more information about the Freedom T-shirts, and locations where you can buy one, you can visit WWW.FREEDOMFOREVERYONE.ORG.