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The U.S. Army offers support to its soldiers and their families through many resources that are available through ACS and Army Family Readiness. But there are many private non- profit organizations that want to show their support and appreciation to our soldiers and their families by helping them where ever they can.
I spoke with Patti Patton-Bader, founder of Soldiers Angels and Christine Bornemann (Bradley), founder of Operation Proud Hearts. These are two amazing ladies who put a lot of time into supporting and helping our troops and their families. With the latter, I personally served as Vice-President with for a few months until I had to give up my time to my full time job.
Support From the Outside:
Charitable Organizations
by Marianke Phillips, posted April 2010
Patti is a military mom; both her sons are soldiers and served tours in Iraq. She devoted to give her best to our service members and their families. Her brother serves in the military. Her father is a retired Lieutenant Colonel, who did two tours in Vietnam and a tour in Korea. To add to that, her great uncle is General Patton.
Soldier’s Angels was founded in 2003, when her son Brandon went to Iraq. Her father suggested that she put together care packages for her son to help her get her mind right about him deploying. He instructed her on how to put them together and how to mail them. Patti and her husband went to the store and bought enough supplies and boxes to send Brandon a care package every day for the next 40 days. And so they did. After about 35 days, and she still hadn’t heard from her son, she started to get worried and she was watching Fox News that was covering the war. She called the base, called a chaplain, Red Cross and anybody that would listen to her. She wanted to know what was going on and why she had not yet heard from her son. It had been four weeks and that is a long time.
She got in contact with the Family Readiness Group Leader; her husband was her son’s First Sergeant. She did not know a whole lot, but all she knew was that they were on ground. The FRG Leader promised that when she talked to her husband, to ask about Patti’s son. When she asked her husband about Patti’s son, he responded, “Who? The luckiest man in Iraq?” That is when she knew the packages were getting through. They told Brandon to call his mom in the evening. And when he called he told her he was fine. And when she asked if he had gotten enough stuff (remember he was getting one every day), his reply was he did not. He told her that Patti and a few other wives were the only ones sending care packages and the rest of the soldier’s weren’t getting any. And they were sharing them and they did not have enough out there. She told her son, that it was going to be ok, and after the phone call she turned to her husband and said, “We’re going to need a lot more money.”
Patti: “I was at home ill at the time, and that is how I learned how to do things on the internet and set up a website, and tell other people ‘Here is how we can help.’ I had worked with a dating network, and so I learned how to connect people. Of course with Soldier’s Angels, it was going to be in a different way, not the dating kind. But it gave me the skills to match soldiers with people that wanted to support them by sending care packages and letters.
Since then we have been able to help thousands of soldiers get their care packages through people helping to send them. We work with the families, with the wounded, with the families of the fallen and the veterans. We are there to help wherever we can to fill the gap there is in people’s life. We have teams throughout the country and even overseas.
We have 1200 to 1300 people sign up daily to adopt soldiers. And we always have a waiting list of soldiers of a 1000 and more. So we always have someone to support and adopt them. At first we were all scared, but now we don’t have to worry about that. For a soldier, getting that package from somebody you do not know, helps your morale so much, and might help to save their life getting through the next day by giving them that extra edge.
We also support the wounded-sent them backpacks, provided them with laptops and assist the families. We helped build a house, helped build a fence, or help build a ramp in.
We work with veterans. We’ve opened our own Veterans Warehouse, trying to hire veterans to work there-because it is challenging for some veterans when they come back and go into the civilian world to even fill out an application for a job, let alone get one. So we are trying to focus on that and let them know that we’ve had success stories of veterans who came in and
did find a job. We will help them with their applications. It is a very small scale program at the moment, but we are hoping to make it bigger.
We also support the families of the Fallen. We have a team of Angels. They take the names of those families and write to them every year, letting them know that they are not forgotten. We have a Living Legend Tree, which they can pick out, from their home state and plant it in either a park or school where their hero went or their own homes. And they can see that tree grow and flourish and remember that we did not forget the sacrifice.”
If you want to help, adopt a soldier, write, help with sewing projects, or in any way you think you can help, or put your talents to use,, visit the website at www.SoldiersAngels.org.
Christine is a military spouse, military brat and a devout military supporter, supporting our troops through care packages, and raising funds through comic relief.
Christine considers her home, San Diego, California, while spending time on Long Island, New York, as the president and founder of Operation Proud Hearts. Her father served in the Navy, in WWII. She has a B.A. in Liberal Studies and English and a M.S. in Instructional Leadership/Second Language. She has taught second language children of all ages in classrooms all over our nation.
Operation Proud Hearts
Christine is a military spouse, military brat and a devout military supporter, supporting our troops through care packages, and raising funds through comic relief.
Christine considers her home, San Diego, California, while spending time on Long Island, New York, as the president and founder of Operation Proud Hearts. Her father served in the Navy, in WWII. She has a B.A. in Liberal Studies and English and a M.S. in Instructional Leadership/Second Language. She has taught second language children of all ages in classrooms all over our nation. Camp Pendleton, CA, she is where she once called her home, too.
While traveling extensively from coast to coast, she taught second language, and raised her children. Her time as a military wife has been joyous yet filled with tribulations, which she shares with other military families. It is this passion that fuels her continued desire to make Proud Hearts a place where all military, veterans, and their families can call home.
Christine: “Operation Proud Hearts (OPH) was founded in 2006 when I found a box of letters in the midst of my relationship ending to a former USMC Company Commander. My family suffered (and still suffers) a great deal from PTSD and the hardships of living a military life. I wanted to share my story through my letters and give back, as so many in the military and civilian community had helped me along the way, when I didn't know if I could pay my electric bill.
OPH currently provides financial assistance and morale to active military, veterans and their families, as well as a 24 hour "Heartline” for active military and veterans to call if they need help or resources. We are still collecting letters to be published. All net proceeds go towards OPH Programs.
We also provide Daddy Dolls for those military children who are missing their mom or dad deployed. We are building a grief program that offers referrals and counseling to active military, veterans and their immediate and extended families.
We began fundraising when a handful of local comedians offered their time and talent to OPH and their heroes. We have hosted more than 30 comedy benefits since February 2009, local to New York and in San Diego, CA. We began our first "Thank You" Tour to our military and their families in August 2009 at Camp Pendleton and MCAS Miramar, CA. We have returned since then and are currently planning more "Thank You" Comedy Shows for our military and their families nationwide. Improv/Comedy Shows for Military Kids are currently in the works!
If you would like OPH to come to your base, reserve center, or town, email christine@proudhearts.org .
We are military families working for military families. We have military and civilian individuals donating their time and talent across the country. If you have a computer, Internet and printer, you can help us with our grassroots way of reaching out to help.
You can help us host a "Thank You" Comedy Show for active military or veterans and their families at your base or town, as well as a Comedy Benefit, or even a pancake breakfast.
If interested, click on the volunteer link at www.proudhearts.org or call the Heartline at 1-800-948-6297. You can also go to this website for support, or call the Heartline.”
I want to thank both Patti and Christine, and their volunteers for the hard work and dedication they put into their organizations to help and support troops and their families. I also want to applaud both of you ladies for standing by your loved ones as they serve our country.
Christine
Comedy Benefit
Marianke Phillips
Senior Contributor
marianke@armywifemagazine.com
www.householdzes.com
Operation Spouseformation
