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Especially in the Iraqi desert.

If they did, Amanda Schwab, of New Alexandria, wouldn't need to raise funds to stock care kits for overseas soldiers like her husband, George.

"That's one of the things the guys ask for all the time, the red Swedish fish candy," she says. "That, and those disposable wipes."

Working through her church, the Bible Fellowship congregation in Irwin, Schwab and some friends began to sell yellow ribbon vehicle magnets that read "Support Our Troops" at fairs and festivals throughout the summer.

"All of the profit is used to fill up those kits and mail them to the soldiers," Schwab says. "There are a lot of people deployed right now, and the care packages help them realize that there are a lot of people who appreciate what they are doing."

Magnetic yellow ribbons have been popping up across the country in the past year. Magnet America, in Bennett, N.C., began producing them last year, marketing them in bulk as fund-raising products to soldier support organizations.

Once overseas manufacturers began producing similar products, the ribbons became ubiquitous, available at any number of various outlets, either on behalf of a group sponsoring the sale or simply as another piece of merchandise.

Organizations generally post a sign at the point of sale to indicate how the money raised will be used.

"I know people can get them just about anywhere and that they can probably even get them for just a dollar or so," Schwab says. "I displayed a sign that said I was selling them to raise funds for the care packages. I sold them for $5 but people understood that it was a donation to a good cause. There's no profit being made here."

Schwab says that as the summer fair and festival schedule has lightened, she's taking a break from selling the ribbons, especially since her husband is home for a couple of weeks before returning to the front.

Other organizations also are selling the ribbons to raise funds to stock and ship care packages overseas. One, for example, is the Soldiers' Angels, a national organization with a local chapter, says Laura Yuhaniak, a volunteer from Latrobe.

"Our magnets come from Magnet America in North Carolina and we sell them for $4," Yuhaniak says. "It's been a real success in terms of money raised for the care packages. The community has really chipped in, too, from teachers to business people.

"People are buying the ribbons, and donating items to be included in the care packages. People can look at our flier and see that we are a nonprofit and that this is what their money is helping us do."

Ribbons to benefit the Soldiers' Angels campaign are sold in a variety of locations.

Magnet America has expanded its line to include a variety of colors and slogans.

In the past couple of decades, Americans have transformed the simple yellow ribbon into a symbol of loyalty, honor and remembrance, but historians still scratch their heads over its exact origin.

The late Gerald E. Parsons, a librarian of the Folklife Reading Room of the Library of Congress, once researched the matter and said the notion of the yellow ribbon as national symbol emerged only in 1979, when 52 Americans were held hostage in Iran.

Americans literally began to tie yellow ribbons everywhere in remembrance, seemingly in accordance with the sentiments expressed in a best-selling hit from Tony Orlando and Dawn in the early 1970s: "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree."

The song's lyrics, however, are about a fellow released from prison after three years who has asked a lover to tie a yellow ribbon around the oak tree if she wants him to get off the bus and stay.

Another potential influence could have come from the Duke.

In 1949, John Wayne starred in the film "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" in which the female lead did just that to express her undying love for a cavalry officer.

Parsons noted there was a Civil War-era folk ballad that expressed some of those sentiments, but he was unable to uncover evidence that wearing a yellow scarf or kerchief was a widespread practice. He also uncovered an 1830s rhyme expressing similar notions but, again, no evidence to identify the exact origin of what has become an American tradition.

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