What you need to know
To many of you, simply donating money or items to organizations that support our military may not seem like a very personal way to show your support.
However, donating is a great and important way of helping deployed soldiers and their families.
Here are some links to a few of the great organizations that support our
troops and that are definitely worth donating to. You can be certain that your
donations will go directly to helping our troops and their
familiesif you give to these organizations. The money will not go to waste.
The Fisher House
Fisher House provides a low-cost way for families of wounded soldiers to stay
with their soldier during their hospitalization. This organization has been
around for a long time and is often ignored.
Operation Uplink is a project of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), which
provides free phone cards to soldiers who are deployed. This can make a great
difference to those who have to use phone cards to call home. You can sign up to
have a phone card send to a soldier you know, or if you are a service member,
you can have a phone card send to yourself.
The USO
The USO provides a large number of services from care packages to putting on
shows for deployed soldiers overseas. You definitely want to check out their
care package program. All their packages include a paperback book, deodorant,
cough drops, candy, and much more. The USO also includes messages to the troops
that can be left on their website with each package.
Support site that allows people to "adopt" a unit and send things to them. Supporters will be provided with the address of one unit to send letters, cards, care packages, etc. This would be a great project to get a lot of people involved at once, such as a class of students, or your local community group. Adopt-a-Platoon has been around for several years now.
Treats for Troops is probably the most secure way of sending a package to "any soldier" overseas. Their website allows soldiers or their family members to sign them up to the program in a way that isn't visible to the general public. Supporters can then sign up to foster a soldier and send him or her care packages - and no contact information is shared. This is the most secure way for anyone who just wants to send a care package to a soldier to show they care.
This is an adopt-a-soldier website run by a Vietnam Veteran and sponsored by Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 752. Soldiers can sign up to be adopted, or can be signed up by family members or friends, and citizens who wish to support troops both in Iraq as well as hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center can sign up to send them care packages.
Operation Shoebox
The purpose of this website is to encourage citizens to support their fighting
men and women deployed overseas in these dangerous times. The page provides
information on how to find names and addresses of service members, information
on what and how to send, and a place to leave online messages as well. You can
also donate money and items to them for care packages.
Through collection drives, letter writing campaigns and donations of requested items or the cost of postage, Operation Gratitude provides civilians anywhere in America a way to express their respect and appreciation to the men and women of the U.S. military in an active, hands-on manner.
Books for Soldiers is a soldier support site that helps people get the addresses of soldiers to ship books, DVDs and other items to soldiers deployed overseas, as well as to VA hospitals stateside. If you have any old, but usable paperback books that are just collecting dust in your home, please consider sending them to deployed soldiers for a morale boost.
Operation Paperback's supporters send books to US service members all over the world (not just Iraq or Afghanistan). Unlike Books for Soldiers, Operation Paperback does not publish service members' addresses on their website, but provides them only to supporters who have been carefully screened first to ensure the safety of US troops overseas receiving the packages. If you have any books you'd like to send, this would be the group to go through.
The Soldiers Angels Foundation
Soldiers' Angels currently supports thousands of American Service Members stationed wherever we raise our Country's Flag and the number is growing daily. We also work tirelessly supporting our Wounded Soldiers, with transitional backpacks, personal visits, phone calls, etc. Additionally, we send our thanks via letters and email to the military of Great Britain, Poland and Australia who serve by our soldiers side in Iraq.
What is OOA? Operation Open Arms offers businesses, associations, and individuals an opportunity to support the select few servicemen and women on 2 week special R&R orders who are returning to foreign destinations such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Korea with discounted or free meals, golf, lodging, parasailing, kayaking, and other benefits.
Travelers can donate frequent- flier miles to help troops on leave from Iraq reach their destinations through Operation Hero Miles. The organization was started by Maryland Congressman CA Ruppersberger, whose district includes BWI airport. The Hero Miles website lists participating airlines and provides information on how to donate frequent-flier miles, and also how soldiers can receive complimentary tickets.
A non-profit, volunteer organization helping to adapt the homes of soldiers who've become disabled during their overseas service to their needs. The organization was founded by construction supervisor John Gonsalves from Massachusetts. You can find a lot more information about what they do and how you can help on their website.
Volunteer organization that was created and is maintained by a few soldiers,
airmen, sailors, and Marines of the US European Command. The group helps get
donations of items for wounded soldiers to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in
Landstuhl, Germany. Items include clothing, DVDs, televisions, and more. For
more information, see their website.
Here you can sign up to sponsor a deployed troop, submit a deployed loved one, donate funds to help ship care packages overseas, interact with deployed troops and much more.