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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.

Project Healing Horse
Injured veterans looking to get back in the saddle can find what they need through the help of Project Healing Horse. The veterans therapeutic riding program uses horses as a medium to provide physical, psychological and social benefits to recovering veterans. The group raises money and promotes therapeutic riding at facilities across the country to heal troops who are injured or suffering from illness. Horses offer a dynamic base of support, which is excellent for improving strength, balance, circulation, respiration, posture endurance, coordination, agility and motor development as well as self-confidence and emotional well-being. The dream of Project Healing Horse is to have the therapeutic riding programs available to all injured veterans who would like to participate.

The program is offered at no cost to the government and is supported completely by donations. Project Healing Horse encourages people to make donations to the facility closest to them. Currently, veterans therapeutic riding centers are available at The National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy, Woodside, California; Forward Stride, Beaverton, Oregon; Pikes Peak Therapeutic Riding Center, Elbert, Colorado; Equest, Kennebunk, Maine; and Life’s Journey Equine Therapy, Bardonia, New York.

More information about the project is available on the Web site. Features include an image gallery and a video with comments from wounded heroes about how the program has helped their recovery efforts.

Tweet to ReMIND
This Memorial Day weekend—Friday, May 22 through Monday, May 25—limber up those fingers and open the wallets for Tweet to ReMIND. The event, led by ReMIND.org, empowers Twitter users to spread the message about the 1.65 million service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since September 11, 2001, as well as raise money to donate to local resources for injured troops, veterans and their families. The goals are to mobilize 400,000 Twitter users over the holiday weekend to send messages of support to the troops who have served in the war zones and to raise $1.65 million.

ReMIND.org is asking tweeters to donate $1 for each tweet they send during Tweet to ReMIND. All messages must include the hashtag #tweettoremind. Anyone interested in participating can register on the Web site. A “Top Contributors” feature and additional items also are available online.

Project Prayer Flag
A little piece of cloth can provide a whole lot of hope to a service member overseas. Project Prayer Flag sends deployed troops Patriot Packs, consisting of American Pocket Flags, inspirational bookmarks, gifts and letters. The idea behind the effort is that those who receive the packs are encouraged by the prayers of the American public and the hope of freedom the items inspire. Volunteers meet in groups around the country to assemble the Patriot Packs and send them overseas. Project Prayer Flag also has other outreach programs, including Operation Christmas Care and Adopt a Vet, which both respond to the needs of single service members. Volunteers adopt these troops and send them care packages as well as offer spiritual and emotional support during their military careers.

The organization solicits donations of money from individuals and businesses but also asks for handwritten notes that can be sent to military members. More information about how to help and where to send items 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.