P&G, Kroger & USO Shake Hands with a Hero Initiative

Thank you to Procter & Gamble, Kroger and the USO for sponsoring this blog post and the Shake Hands With A Hero initiative. Please click here to learn more about this program. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

I love history and old war movies.  One of my favorites is Band of Brothers which took me many years to discover such an amazing story of a band of heroes among many.  I instantly fell for the main character by the name of Major Dick Winters along with the his fellow men in arms.  Coming from a family with a long line of military duty to include my father, his four brothers, two sisters and my husband, I have a special place in my heart for those that give themselves for the good of our country and our citizens.  When you are part of a military family, you know that the every day life of being in the military is a challenging one for all involved.  When a member of the family deploys, everyone is affected.  For me, each time my husband is deployed, I take back the role of a single mom.  I'm hardly a hero but I do hold down the fort, make sure the children are well and taken care of and take care of all the in-betweens.  There are so many families playing this role for many years now as the deployment rotation is frequent and reoccurring.

What I've learned from being in the military are the countless men and women who re-enlist in spite of the dangers.  These unselfish people put themselves in harms way in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan for our security, our rights and our livelihoods.  Many of these great people re-enlist while already serving a combat tour and many volunteer to go back in harms way after already serving more than one tour in a combat area.  I've seen the sadness of these men and women leaving, the happiness as they return and have seen the first hand harm these deployments cause to families.  To me, they are all heroes and definitely deserve a hand shake even if virtual.

I enjoy when others take the time to call out the sacrifices made for our men, women and children all involved in the military family unit.  Having P&G and Kroger partnering with the USO is a wonderful way to call attention and appreciation to our men and women.  The USO is an organization with 150 centers in 27 countries that provides an array of programs to include the famous USO shows that entertain the troops and their families for free.  Through this wonderful program, Kroger will donate $250,000 to the USO.  My husband just returned from another deployment and was lucky to have had some visitors as part of the USO come to their camp.  The USO also offers service to the men and women at airports which can be a great relief to those that have to travel far.

You can easily join in to show your appreciation with the partnership of P&G and Kroger to virtually "shake hands with a hero" at www.honoringourheroes.com.  The first 50,000 people to use the microsite application will receive a coupon loaded to their Kroger card for $1.00 off P&G products.