Community Supports the Homefront

There are so many ways we can support the organizations which are the foundation of support for our community. Everyone always thinks when a non-profit looks for support they mean CASH. That's not always the case.

Operation Homefront looks to find a broadbased way of providing support for military members in crisis. One family arrived in our area and after a short waiting period were offered on base housing. For many families this is a huge cost savings when they are able to use their military housing allowance for privatized housing on post. This particular family had only one problem...they had housing with no furniture. Not a bed, not a dresser, no living room furniture and no washer or dryer. Operation Homefront stepped in with donations from the community, providing slightly used furnishings for the family until they were able to afford their own.
All too often we look to find "what can we get" for those items in our home we are able to afford to replace. Why not reverse the thought and think "what can we give" and "who can benefit from it?"

Donated furnishings, vehicles (in working order only), non-perishable food items, grocery store or WalMart Gift Cards, all provide a level of support for our military families that can be turned into help for those military families in need. From the business community why not provide an in-kind donation to Operation Homefront. Instead of charging full price for your services, maybe you can provide a discount or "parts only". When service providers are able to share in the cost of a repair, Operation Homefront is able to stretch that donor dollar farther and is able to serve more families. Case in point, last Christmas a service member returned from Iraq and purchased a vehicle which "didn't run for very long". Because the vehicle was worth $500 and the repairs were in excess of $4,000, it wasn't cost effective to fix the car. Operation Homefront found a donated vehicle which needed a few repairs from one of the local used car businesses. Working with these two businesses, Operation Homefront was able to save 35% on the total cost of the repairs while getting the service member and his family back on the road and home for Christmas.

Non-profits to a lot with very little...but, what they are able to give to their clients is worth a fortune!