Single Soldier Project: Fundraising

There are many exciting things happening with Soldiers get ready to come home from a deployment. One of the projects our FRG has taken on is providing gift baskets for every single Soldier returning to a barracks room. When they arrive, exhausted from a long flight and even longer deployment, we want them to feel a warm welcome home. Since they aren't allowed to drive for the first day or so (and many can't get to their stored vehicles anyway), we wanted them to have a few survival items and some yummy snacks to get through those first days home.

Phase I of this project is fundraising.  Because this is for a specific group within our FRG (only single Soldiers), we needed to raise funds for this specific project.  Our answer (taken from several other groups at Fort Hood who have hosted similar projects) was to have a "Sponsor a Single Soldier" fundraiser.  Our unit Families were invited to sponsor a basket for $35.00 or donate items to be placed in the baskets.  It was a HUGE success and we were able to get everything we needed for these heroes.

*Note:  We recommend that you send ALL items to your unit's JAG office before publishing anything.  We received written permission at every step ... and would encourage you to do the same.  ;)

We are very excited and cannot wait to welcome these heroes home!

You can see a copy of our "Operation Upgrade Tracker" on SlideShare.  It's an Excel spreadsheet that helped us keep track of what had been donated, what we needed to shop for, and items that were still needed.

This is a sample of the flyer we used (created on PowerPoint).