Many of you may be familiar with the amazing charity Soldiers Angels. Not too long ago, Blake Powers cooked a steak dinner for soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, and Cooking with the Wounded began as an official Soldiers Angels program. This led to a barbecue at the Malogne House at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It was so successful that Patti Patton-Bader, founder of Soldiers Angels, suggested that this become its own stand-alone charity.

With that, Cooking with the Troops was born.

Cooking with the Troops, Inc., is a non-profit organization devoted to providing a culinary change of pace to U.S. and Allied troops along with educational and related opportunities for those transitioning out of service and into careers in the food and beverage industry. While the primary focus is on the wounded, injured, and ill — and associated caregivers — operations are intended to cover the full range of those who serve, their families, and those who provide medical and related care.

… Operations will be phased in over time, and will start with culinary events — barbecues and special events — held within the continental United States and expand overseas at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and elsewhere as resources become available. The former will build off of the barbecues done at Walter Reed Army Medical Center since 2007 by Bob Miller, while the latter will build off of Cooking for/with the Wounded events done by Blake Powers through Soldiers’ Angels.

The barbecues will be family-oriented events that provide a relaxed and comfortable experience for the wounded and their families, and caregivers. The focus will be to provide something different for them to eat and to do, while allowing maximum interaction with both those putting on the event and others. Preliminary talks are underway with Baen Books to have them participate both by donating books to give out and to have one or more of their authors attend the event and sign books while there. While these talks are ongoing, Baen Books has already pledged $100.00 towards the next barbecue event. This and other draws will be explored and expanded if warranted. The low-key interaction and ease of cooking will encourage both learning and participation by those attending, and allow them to learn about other educational opportunities.

The special events will not be as low key, but will seek to encourage indirect and direct learning and participation by those attending. The goal with special events is to recruit guest chefs to do events both in the United States and overseas (Landstuhl primarily) so that a wide variety of cuisines, techniques, and career possibilities are presented. The guest chefs will be encouraged to do formal and informal sessions on their career, how they got started, and other information that will be of interest. One of Food TV’s Iron Chefs and one of the approximately 60 Certified Master Chefs in the US are two potential guest chefs who have expressed interest in taking part.

As you can see, Cooking with the Troops is going to be a great charity. I’ve already signed up to volunteer at one of the barbecues this summer. Right now, they’re looking for a few good artists to help design an official logo, and there will be some great prizes for the winners!

A brand new organization needs a lot of things, but none is ultimately more central to getting operations started than a logo/artwork that visually defines the organization. A good logo or artwork truly is a thousand words, if not many, many more. It tells you almost everything you need to know about the people it represents, and often does so without any words at all.

We need something that can do that. Something that sums up what we are, what we do, and what we hope to do for the troops and their families. Something that combines the seemingly highly separated areas of cooking, combat arms, and maybe even education. Artwork that can be printed full color for print applications, but also done as a one, two, or three spot colors onto mugs and other items.

To make it even more interesting, this needs to be something that can be used almost anywhere: t-shirts, chefs coats, chefs hats, business cards, coins, pins, letterhead, and more. This means that if it is artwork, we need to be able to separate out the central, key component to use small. If it is a logo, it needs to be able to fill all those roles legibly no matter how small or how big.

Your challenge, should you decide to accept it, is to create something that can stand for our mission and the four key goals, and do it within those parameters. You then have to submit it as noted below by noon Eastern time 25 June 2010.

First prize will win a knife donated by Michael Williamson, author and edged weapon maker, a jumbo barbecue set from the Spice House, an autographed Gretchen Wilson DVD, a jar of barbecue sauce from Concrete Bob, a feature about you on the Cooking with the Troops website and maybe more!

Judging the contest will be Chris Muir, the creator of the Day by Day comic strip, Damon Shackelford, creator of the military Delta Bravo Sierra comic strip, and John Cox, author and fine art purveyor.

To enter the contest, e-mail your submission to artcontest@cwtt.org. All submissions must be received by noon Eastern time, June 25th 2010. You can enter up to three designs. For more information and too read the rules of the contest, simply go here.

So, for all of you creative readers out there, get designing! Send this to any artists you know! Help get the word out about this great new military charity!

Cross-posted at The Green Room, Stop the ACLU, Liberty Pundits, and Hard Corps Wife!