Read more about this on the Today's Show website as well... Please see below what you can do to help to support our troops... They love to receive messages and letters as well as gift boxes. Thanks for doing your part to continue to show the love and support during those rough times this is when they and all Americans need it the most!
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TODAY’s Call to Action series aims to get Americans to step up their support for service members and military families. Here is a list of resources that can get you started.
Send letters, gifts, and packages to troops overseas
Anyone can send a letter, an e-mail, or package to those deployed. Let them know they are not forgotten. Thousands of soldiers have signed up to hear from you, and you can find their names and addresses on this Web site. It's free.
http://www.anysoldier.com/
USO’s mission is to provide morale, welfare and recreation-type services to uniformed military personnel. The original intent of Congress, and enduring style of USO delivery, is to represent the American people by extending a touch of home to the military.
http://www.uso.org/
This organization seeks to lift morale and put smiles on the faces of those men and women deployed in hostile and remote regions by sending care packages, food, hygiene products, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation. They have sent more than 400,000 packages all over the world.
http://www.opgratitude.com/
Books For Soldiers is a soldier support site that ships books, DVDs and supplies to deployed soldiers and soldiers in VA hospitals via a large volunteer network.http://www.booksforsoldiers.com/
The AdoptaPlatoon Soldier Support Effort founded in 1998 is a nonprofit 501C-3 organization managed nationwide by volunteer mothers to ensure that deployed United States service members in all branches of the military are not forgotten by providing needed mail support and promoting patriotism in our schools and communities.
http://www.adoptaplatoon.org/
Service members register with this organization for morale support and are matched with civilians who want to e-mail our troops and show them they care. In addition to receiving a military service member — or several — to correspond with on a one-on-one basis, eMOM also runs seasonal and year-round support projects to keep you motivated and having fun, all while supporting our troops. The organization also sends mail and care packages.
http://www.emailourmilitary.com/
La Knitterie Parisienne is a knitting shop that invites everyone to join them in crafting a hand-knit blanket for USA Cares Operation Lap Wrap and help make a difference in the lives of the brave servicemen and women who have put their lives on the line.
http://www.laknitterieparisienne.com/LKP_USACares.html
Support military families in need
Operation Homefront
Operation Homefront was created to channel volunteer support to help the families of our deployed military personnel. With hundreds of thousands of service members deployed for war in Iraq, and countless others around the world fighting the war on terrorism, thousands of spouses and children are left behind, and many are in need. Operation Homefront is there for them.
Military Child Education Coalition
This organization helps families, children, schools and communities be better prepared to support military children whose education is impacted by frequent moves and difficult, sometimes traumatic, times in the lives of military families.
West Point Family Morale, Welfare and Recreation Soldier and Family Assistance Center This Army community service organization offers assistance and support to wounded soldiers and their families in the West Point community. It works to help resolve health, personal and social issues for officers, soldiers, transitioning service members, civilian veterans and their families.
USA Cares
USA Cares maintains a "call center" dedicated to the millions of Americans who have service members in their family. They also have a family support account created with money generously donated to them, exclusively for use in supporting military families in the same tradition as Kentuckiana Cares. Trained and experienced "advocates" will mentor, coach and be the friendly voice to help those families that may not even know the right question to ask.
The Yellow Ribbon Fund
The Yellow Ribbon Fund has one mission: Welcoming our injured service members into our community. More than 500 individuals and companies in the Washington metropolitan area joined together to support these injured service members. We offer them an opportunity to use their free time to learn new skills with a local company. We provide hotel rooms, rental cars, and other transportation for their families. Our volunteers are mentors and friends who care.
Building Homes for Heroes
Building Homes for Heroes provides individuals, corporations and others with an opportunity to help severely wounded and disabled veterans and their families rebuild their lives. Many of these young men and women are coming home badly burned, with permanent and unsightly body disfigurements, missing limbs, the loss of sight or ability to walk, psychiatric conditions or paralysis. Building Homes for Heroes is committed to supporting these extraordinary men and women, with a goal to build homes for families in dire need.
Evan A. Ashcraft Memorial Foundation
The intent of this foundation established by Jim and Jane Bright is to memorialize Sergeant Evan A. Ashcraft, who was killed in action in Iraq on July 24, 2003. Donations to the foundation will be distributed in memory of Evan Ashcraft and his desire to help people. It will provide educational funds to the veterans and dependents of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Fisher House Foundation
Because members of the military and their families are stationed worldwide and must often travel great distances for specialized medical care, Fisher House™ Foundation donates "comfort homes," built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful times — during the hospitalization for an unexpected illness, disease or injury.
Homes for Our Troops, Inc.
Founded on February 4, 2004, this Massachusetts nonprofit builds specially adapted homes for our disabled veterans of war. The organization is dedicated to helping those who have selflessly given to their country and have returned home with serious disabilities and injuries.
Operation Comfort
Operation Comfort's mission is to create a nationwide network of mental health providers and agencies to donate their services, free of charge, to family members who have a loved one serving in the Middle East.
Hope for the Warriors
The mission of Hope for the Warriors is to enhance quality of life for U.S. Service Members and their families nationwide who have been adversely affected by injuries or death in the line of duty.
National Veterans Foundation
Since 1985, The National Veterans Foundation has been a leading resource for veterans. NVF is a nonprofit organization that offers emotional support, a listening ear, and information about veteran services. NVF is run by veterans, for veterans. The mission of The National Veterans Foundation is to help veterans get the help they need as quickly as possible.
Semper Fi Fund
The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund helps Marines, sailors and their families meet their financial needs during difficult times. The Fund works closely with the Marine Corps, the Navy and hospitals nationwide to identify and assess the needs of specific families.
Operation Purple
The National Military Family Association’s Operation Purple camp offers time for having fun, making friends, and reminding military kids that they are the nation’s youngest heroes. It also offers Operation Purple Healing Adventure Camp, which has a specially designed program for wounded service members and their families.
Operation Special Delivery
This organization provides trained volunteer doulas for pregnant women whose husbands or partners have been severely injured or who have lost their lives in current conflicts, or who will be deployed at the time that they are due to give birth. If you are a trained doula and want to help military moms get through labor physically and emotionally, please volunteer.
The Real Warriors Campaign
The Real Warriors Campaign is an initiative launched by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) to promote the processes of building resilience, facilitating recovery and supporting reintegration of returning service members, veterans and their families. They are looking for health professionals to join their TRICARE network of physicians.
Operation Open Arms
This is an organization of South Florida businesses who welcome military families by donating free guided fishing trips, restaurant meals and other R&R activities to members of the armed forces on leave before they return to Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, or other foreign duty stations.
Blue Star Families
Blue Star Families is a bridge between military families, the shapers of policy affecting military life, and the nation. Through outreach with national and local organizations, civilian communities and government entities, the organization seeks to educate the nation in order to promote healthier families, aid in our military readiness and contribute to our country’s strength.
N.J. National Guard Family Programs
The New Jersey National Guard Family Programs Office has established regional Family Assistance Centers (FACs) to support all military families specifically during times of deployment and separation. Each Family Assistance Center is trained to help families get the support and information they need, as quickly as possible, while lending a sympathetic ear to those in need of one. Call toll free: 1-888-859-0352.
Support for veterans:
Canines for combat veterans
NEADS' mission is to rescue and train dogs to assist veterans with everyday tasks through their Canines for Combat Veterans Program. The program's goal is to provide the highest quality of trained service dogs to all qualified applicants. Volunteers are needed to help raise puppies.
America's vet dogs
The VetDogs project is a program from the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, Inc. Since its beginning in 1946, the foundation has always served the needs of veterans and in recent years, the foundation has come to recognize that as veterans age, and as wounded soldiers return home from the global war on terrorism, there would be a greater need for guide dogs and specialized service dogs to help our service members maintain mobility and independence. With the assistance of volunteers, they train and supply guide dogs for the visually impaired veteran and service dogs for those who have disabilities other than blindness.
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is the nation's first and largest group dedicated to the troops and veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the civilian supporters of those troops and veterans. It provides the following online resources:
SupportyourVet.org gives friends/family members tools on how to ease the transition back into civilian life and fight problems that these vets are facing such as Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
CommunityofVeterans.org is a social media Web site that is exclusive for vets where they can freely discuss issues they face, such as PTSD.
Special thanks: TODAY's Call To Action asked for viewers to bring baby need items and children's books to the Plaza on Thursday morning. Every item is much appreciated. We'd like to thank everyone who participated and give a special thank-you to these wonderful companies who answered our call and donated nearly $76,000 in products that will help military families.
Southwest Publishing
Cheerios "Spoonfuls of Stories"
Pampers
Graco Children's Products
Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Sesame Workshop: The non-profit educational organization behind Sesame Street
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