General Clark will be in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for a very special event on Friday, July 20th.

For the first time ever at a Young Democrats of America (YDA) National Convention, delegates will participate in a major community service project with the help of our good friends at Democrats Work. On Friday, July 20th at the Adams Mark Hotel in Dallas, the Convention will turn its focus to supporting the families of soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of Operation Homefront's "Operation Backpack" program. This effort will ensure that families who are sacrificing the most can give their kids a great start to a new school year with new backpacks full of school supplies.

I am proud to join the YDA delegates and some very special guests -- including VoteVets founder Jon Soltz and WWE Superstar Chris Nowinski -- to assemble these back-to-school backpacks and distribute them to Dallas-Fort Worth area children of our deployed troops.

I hope you'll get involved, too. Here are three ways you can participate:

1. Register for a backpack. If you have a family member serving overseas and have children in school, please register to receive a backpack at the Operation Homefront's website. (Or if you know of a military family in need, please forward this email to them so they can sign up.) We'll be distributing the backpacks at the Adams Mark Hotel in Dallas on Friday, July 20th at 12:30 p.m. Note: Only families of service members with a rank of E6 or lower are eligible to get backpacks.
2. Donate backpacks and school supplies. I hope you will donate much-needed supplies to this worthy effort. You can drop off backpacks and supplies at the Dallas County Democratic Party headquarters (which is located at 4209 Parry Avenue in Dallas). A list of the needed school supplies and directions to the Party's offices can be found here. You can also bring supplies to the Adams Mark Hotel beginning next Wednesday.
3. Come to the event and show your support for the troops. I hope you'll drop by the Convention to see this great work in action and to support our troops. I'll be helping put together backpacks and speaking to the hard-working delegates and our great military families at 12:30 p.m. at the Adams Mark Hotel in downtown Dallas. I hope to see you there.