Wow.

Some day, I have to find a way to meet you people, hardly any of whom I know, but who seem so intuitive and connected to what I am trying to do that it is sometimes frightening as well as wonderful. Last week, I wrote on the blog that we needed some help with bingo prizes at the Mansion, we were running out of places to get enough good ones.

I went to the Mansion today and was led to the new Bingo Prize cart, overflowing with creative, inventive, needed, charming and necessary prizes, from bracelets that light up to classy rolled up underwear to stuffed animals, sugar free candy, cards, special pens, funky socks, sugar free candles, puzzles.

I just put up one piece, one post, one time. I didn’t know if anyone saw it.

And this full cart today was just the first day. There are a half-dozen big boxes waiting to be opened. More on the way. They are much appreciated, wonderful and there is already tremendous buzzing and excitement about the next Bingo Game, which will be called by me and Maria.

It was almost as if many of you were waiting for this request, and had imaginative hand made and other novelty crafts sitting by the back door waiting to be shipped out.

The purchased gifts are inventive and surprising. We seem so in sync with one another, how is this possible in this cynical and divided world? These gifts are perfect, right from the heart, just what the residents need and love and want.

It was bewildering, I told Julie, the very excited and grateful Mansion Activities Director. “DIdn’t I just put this up? How is this possible?” She just laughed and said I ought to know these people by now, they never fail me, they never fail the Mansion residents, they never fail themselves.

It was also exhilarating. There are so many good people out there, aching for the chance to do good.

When I mention something like the Bingo Prizes, I have no way of knowing if anyone will  respond to what I write.

The Army Of Good is a humble entity, people do not need or demand thanks or  stroking. The Mansion residents keep asking me who you are and I have no idea what to tell them. Good people out there somewhere, I say.

I never know until I walk into the Mansion or someone calls up to tell me the UPS or Fedex truck is backed up to the door and all kinds of boxes are stacking up in the hallway. Then I know.

You all somehow seem to grasp life in the Mansion, you are sending things I never would have thought of, but that the residents love. You seem to know how important a bingo game can be to people shut away from the world and at the edge of life. And how much it means to get to pick a special prize.

I wonder how to tell you how much you have meant to these people, once left behind and forgotten in so many cases. Today, when I left the Mansion, Sylvie was writing letters to so many of you. “Thank you, Jon,” she said, “thanks to you, I have so many friends now.”

I can’t thank you enough and more Bingo Prizes would be welcome. You can send them to Julie Harlin, Bingo Prizes, The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You really are an Army Of Good.