www.ourheroesjourney.com www.standandsaluteamericanheroes.com www.ourfallensoldier.com
September 2011
Our Mission remains strong as we journey into our 5th year as organization, as of August 1st. As an organization we continue to grow and expand to meet the ever growing needs of military families around the nation, of all branches of service. For the first time in American history our military is facing rapid multiple deployments. These deployments are taking their toll on tens of thousands of military families. Through our constant interaction with these families we see the tremendous emotional, physical and financial stresses this puts on these often young families.
This is why we have added “new” much needed projects to our organization such as Our Heroes Journey, Stand & Salute American Heroes, Operation Military Brat and our Veteran Hospice Outreach. As we continue to outreach, we still remain strong and present in the lives of thousands of families around the country whose son, daughter, husband, wife, mother or father has made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of others! We will continue to assist these families in whatever ways they need. Whether it is getting the kids to “grievance camps” in the summer, helping a family travel, standing beside a family during tough times or offering some other form of assistance …our mission remains steadfast! We also continue to maintain our online memorial pages and update our website as information is released from the Department of Defense regarding causalities.
Stand & Salute American Heroes
Is a brand new “project” of Our Fallen Soldier, but one we have worked with since late 2009. We have had the distinct pleasure of presenting several combat wounded veterans with the “Stand & Salute American Heroes” award at sports venues around the country in the last few months. All of these men (we are looking for Women to honor too…hint ..hint!) that have been rewarded were combat wounded. Whether their injuries came from Vietnam or the current theaters of war, their sacrifices they have made are enormous. Stand and Salute American Heroes is proud to work with several partners, MVP’s, around the country that make these events possible with their kind and generous donated items from all around the country! Phoenix Bat of Ohio generously supplies and engraves all the bats for our baseball season recipients receive. Also, Doug of Weaselhead Custom Designs that design our hockey sticks that are donated by Vaughn Hockey. American Airlines, Golden Corral, Throws Of Love, Products for Good and MWC Enterprises are all part of the Stand & Salute American Heroes team.
Our award winners this quarter were SSgt. Octavio Sanchez who was presented his award at a Anaheim Ducks game. Cpl. Jerry Johs who was presented his award at a Arizona Diamondbacks game, Sgt. Charles Eggerstrom received his award at a Minnesota Twins game and Sgt. Trey Humphreys received his award at a San Diego Padres Game. We would like to thank the professional ball clubs that hosted these events and thank them for taking the time to honor our combat wounded veterans with us! We look forward to giving out more awards in the coming months! If you would like to nominate someone for this prestigious award please visit us at
www.standandsaluteamericanheroes.com and nominate them today! We can also be contacted by emailing us at . Be sure to join our Stand & Salute American Heroes group on face book too.
Operation Military Brat
Military kids are so well behaved; it is really not fair to call them Brats! The term refers to people who spend their childhood or adolescence while their parent serves in the armed forces. Our project “Operation Military Brat” is a fun outreach to kids around the nation that live on military bases. In July we worked in collaboration with a local kid’s boutique “Spin Again” in Encinitas, CA. “Spin Again” made donations of clothing, shoes and baby items to our project and in late July with a truck full of back to school clothing, baby clothes and lots of strollers, high chairs and other baby items… we were able to give away these items to several very deserving children and families at Camp Pendleton! We are planning to do this on a quarterly basis at Camp Pendleton and as finances allow expand this program to military bases around the country!
We WELCOME Sunshine … as our “Volunteer National Director” of Stand & Salute American Heroes. She will be in charge of our national contact with sports venues and other award hosts around the country to arrange and plan our honor events for our combat wounded. Sunshine is a huge asset to our organization as her focus is to honor and pay tribute to our combat wounded from all theaters of war. Sunshine has a wealth of knowledge and knows firsthand the needs of our combat wounded. Sunshine is married to a Vietnam combat wounded veteran. We are very excited to have Sunshine and her husband Jay, join our organization. Planning honor events takes countless phone calls and many hours of planning. Thank you Sunshine for your many volunteer hours you give to “Stand & Salute American Heroes”. We are excited to be working with you. If you have any ideas for our Stand & Salute American Heroes program or would like to nominate someone please email Sunshine at .
Veteran Hospice Outreach….. In the not too distant future, we will begin to outreach to Veteran’s around the country that are in hospice care. No veteran should be alone during this time if there is no family around for these veterans. For many it is this way, especially the Homeless Veterans that are now ill and need VA Hospice. Pending death can be more difficult for veterans who have experienced active combat or have a history with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We are going to do our best; just as many other organizations are doing to make sure that no dying veteran is alone. We are going to work to make sure that these veterans around the country are remembered during this time and know that they have the love, appreciation and support of many Americans.
Family “FUN” Day at Camp Pendleton brought out 100’s of Marines, their children and spouses for a fun day in the park. Our Heroes Journey hosted this event for nearly a group of 500 Marines that we have “Adopted” that are actively training for an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan in the coming months. This fun filled day included a train for the kids, face painting, a huge jump balloon obstacle course, a paint ball station, a magic show for the whole family, a DJ and awesome Mexican food brought in by Ramones of Oceanside, CA. This day was planned to get families out together doing fun activities. We put many of these fun family days together for these Marines as they set to deploy as a way to offer support to them, their spouses and children. We will continue to gather these families as their Marines deployment draws closer, during and after deployment to aid in the transitions and stress these families experience during deployment time. We had a great time seeing everyone and meeting some new members to our group.
Let us pause as a nation to remember 10 years ago…
let us be reminded of the bravery we saw that day as thousands of lives were taken from us. Those brave firefighters and police officers that selflessly risked their lives to save the life of strangers. Let us remember to the sense of patriotism we each felt and the huge outcry we felt as a nation to ban together. Now 10 years later, there are thousands of families that lives were profoundly changed on that fateful day September 11, 2001. Then as a country we watched as thousands of brave soldiers from all branches of service… deploy to the Middle East to defend the freedom and liberation of other! For many now… we have faced a soldier not coming home. So, we ask you to pause on September 11th, 2011 and remember! Remember the families of that tragic day and remember our military families that have sacrificed so much over the last 10 years defending our freedom. Let us NEVER Forget!
In the next edition… Santa comes to town, Stand & Salute American Heroes honors a World War II Veteran, Coins for Combat & Turkeys4Troops and much more.
To contact us visit:
www.ourfallensoldier.com www.ourheroesjourney.com www.standandsaluteamericanheroes.com
Donations can be made online or mailed to:
Our Fallen Soldier
PO BOX 131593
Carlsbad, CA 92013
We are a 501 (c)3 Non-Profit Organization # 74-3187605