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.

HELP BRING A GI IN HARM'S WAY A LITTLE CLOSER TO HIS FAMILY

Excellent program to support your military families!  The USO helps to unite the separated loved ones and you can help with the upcoming holiday season.  I know when my husband was in Iraq three year's ago at Christmas time, he loved every package he received from me.  Not all soldiers are so lucky and some can't afford to send much as the salary of an enlisted soldier isn't much.  My husband is one of the "lucky" ones in which his tours don't normally put him on the streets fighting so he does have the ability to communicate with me frequently.   Each assignment is different so we'll see how next Christmas will be when he's in Kuwait.

See the message from the USO on how you can help this year:

As military deployments tear families apart, United Through Reading helps bring them together. Thanks to this program, GIs who are thousands of miles away from home and loved ones can still read a bedtime story to their kids every night.


In 62 locations around the globe, the USO's United Through Reading volunteers make DVDs of GIs reading children's books – like "Goodnight Moon" or "The Cat In The Hat" – aloud. The DVD and the book are then mailed to the kids back home to show them that mommy or daddy, though far away, is in fact OK.

Program participants tell of children touching the TV screen or talking back to the recorded image of their parent every time the DVD is played. And troops in harm's way will line up for hours just for the chance to make a recording for their kids.

In less than three years, the United Through Reading program has exploded. Over 50,000 recordings have been made this year, and 100,000 are projected for 2010. Your donation will help the USO provide the cameras (many are wearing out from overuse)... the books… the DVDs and mailers... even the boxes of tissues that must be placed in every recording location.

Our men and women in uniform give up so much when they go off to war on our behalf. Please help the USO bring them a little closer to the loved ones left behind by supporting United Through Reading as generously as you can. On behalf of those we serve, Thank You!

Click here to go to the USO site for more information or to donate.

My Points and USO: Help a GI Call Home

The holidays are approaching and the need to hear your loved one's voices is very comforting during deployments.  My Points and the USO have teamed up to raise funds for phone cards for our great men and women deployed.  As a wife of an Army soldier, I know how much these phone cards mean to them as after awhile, the costs adds up.  Many of the military personnel are also low income and can't afford this commen convenience we have at home.

Support our troops in the best possible way – by helping them call their loved ones back home.

Lonely... tired... half a world away from home and family… the troops defending our freedom around the world ache for the sound of a loved one's voice. That’s why we - the USO - through Operation Phone Home®, buy and hand out thousands of pre-paid phone cards to our men and women in uniform.

For our soldiers at the Front, there’s no magic like the music of your child's voice on a Holiday morning... no warmth like the familiar sound of "Happy Birthday" sung by your parents or siblings... and no relief as complete as the chance to chat with a friend when you're really down.

Your $10 donation provides a GI in Iraq with 30 minutes of prepaid calls to the US. A $20 donation buys 60 prepaid minutes. A $100 donation: 300 minutes. Please give as generously as you can, today! Tomorrow could be too late.

To date, over two million phone cards have been distributed to the brave men and women overseas since the program was launched in 2003.

We have 170,000~ men and women serving to protect our freedom so please consider donating!