Homefront Help

Homefront Help is SIGNAL Connections’ effort to support U.S. service members, veterans and their families. The column highlights programs that offer resources and assistance to the military community ranging from care packages to benefits and everything in between. In that same spirit, Homefront Help presents opportunities for readers to donate time, offer resources and send words of thanks to those who sacrifice for freedom. Programs that provide services are listed in red. Opportunities for the public to reach out to service members are listed in blue. Each program description includes a link to the organization's Web site, when available.

Face of America 2009
Dust off those bikes, take them out of the garage and get rolling for a great cause! Face of America 2009 begins April 25 in Bethesda, Maryland, to raise awareness of service members injured in the line of duty. The 110-mile bike ride, which ends April 26 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, also raises funds for World TEAM (The Exceptional Athlete Matters) Sports, an organization that strives to increase awareness, acceptance and integration of people with disabilities through sports. Face of America focuses specifically on disabled veterans by reaching out and actively including troops who have been severely injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The ride honors wounded warriors by using sports to help integrate them back into society. World TEAM Sports wants to thank these young men and women for their service and also let them know that they still can be active members of the TEAM. The event focuses on meeting challenges, promoting camaraderie and developing the lasting knowledge that all of the participants are integral members of society. The group works with several other organizations including Soldiers’ Angels, the Injured Semper Fi Foundation, and service members from military hospitals and installations around the country to put on the ride.

Any service member—injured or otherwise—who wants to ride is invited to participate for free. Anyone else who wants to join in can register online at www.worldteamsports.org. Service members and sponsors also can attend the kick-off dinner the night of April 24. Civilians must pay a $50 registration fee and raise a minimum of $600 in donations. All registrations must be in by April 23 at 8:59 PDT.

Additional information, including instructions on what to bring, where to stay, how to sign up as a team captain, schedule, links to registration and more, is available on the Web site. 

The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund is one of the charities involved in the Face of America Ride, but its efforts reach far beyond that single event. The organization offers financial help to Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) Marines and sailors injured in combat or training or who have life-threatening illnesses; their families to help defray costs from hospitalization, rehabilitation and recovery; other OEF/OIF troops injured in direct support of Marine units; and those troops’ families. Aid also is available for the purchase of specialized equipment, adaptive vehicles and handicap home purchase or modifications. 

In addition to accepting individual donations, the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund appreciates fundraisers held on its behalf because these increase awareness of the predicament of wounded Marines and their families. Previous fundraisers have included runs, golf tournaments and even a wrestling tournament. The organization also has established the Team Semper Fi, a sports program through which it provides coaches, specialized sporting equipment, entry fees and travel expenses for wounded team members.

More information—including how to donate or host a fundraiser—and features are available on the Web site.

Soldiers’ Angels
For more information on this group assisting with the Face of America 2009, please see the previous Homefront Help write-up at this link, or visit the charity’s home page.

G.I. Woodshop Inc.
G.I. Woodshop helps bring a little bit of home to troops overseas by shipping hobby and woodshop items to deployed service members. These tools are difficult to obtain in combat zones, and for troops to do something as simple as hanging a picture they have to search for a nail and a hammer (frequently a combat boot!). Warfighters also can use the materials to build common objects such as chairs and reading tables that often are missing in budgets focused on battle needs.

Normally, G.I. Woodshops fulfills request lists with items such as screws, nails, saw blades, drill bits, hand and power tools, glue, sandpaper and other woodshop supplies, but at military members’ requests, they also send other hard-to-get, useful items. These include waterproof sunblock and bug repellent, fly glue sticks, gel shoe inserts and body powders. The group even has sent liquid coffee flavors at chaplains’ requests for use in their coffee shops.

Deployed troops can sign up for packages by sending a letter or e-mail with their wish lists to the G.I. Woodshop. Contact as well as donation information is available on the Web site.

The SIGNAL Connections staff encourages readers to take advantage of the programs mentioned in this column and to pass along the information. In addition, if you know of a program that is helping service personnel, please let us know about it. Submit that information to SIGNAL's news editor.

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