Mark your calendar for the 13th annual For The Troops Heroes Golf Tournament taking place September 21 at Moorpark Country Club.
The full day of golfing and fellowship with active duty servicemembers helps support the care packages sent to military personnel throughout the world, notes Golf Tournament Director and For The Troops board member Jenna Venarde.
“We’re asking the public to sponsor active duty servicemembers to play in the tournament,” shares Paula Cornell, founder and President of For The Troops, an all-volunteer run 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that brightens American military members’ days with ‘We Care’ packages full of basic necessities and comfort items.
Golfers can participate in the 144-person tournament and/or sponsor an active duty servicemember for $195 to help sustain For The Troops’ mission of sending more care packages, while enjoying a day on the course. Current Medal of Honor sponsors include Logix Federal Credit Union and Kroger.
“Logix has donated over half a million dollars; they’ve been an amazing sponsor! They are our number 1 supporter” says Paula, noting that event proceeds will help pay the postage for the more than 1,300 care packages that cost about $20,000 postage each month to send.
Additional ways to support For The Troops include making monetary donations online at ForTheTroops.org, shipping items directly to the nonprofit via Amazon or mailing a check to For The Troops (PO Box 12, Simi Valley, CA 93062).
“As we operate out of a donated storefront in Simi Valley, we’re not using donations to pay salaries or rent—it’s all going to the care packages,” says Paula.
As well as donating money and supplies, people can write letters of appreciation to our servicemembers abroad.
“The troops’ number 1 request are for children’s letters,” says Paula, noting the letter-writing guidelines can be found online at ForTheTroops.org.
Paula started For The Troops over 21 years ago after learning about her husband’s experiences in Vietnam.
All over the world, wherever we have deployed troops, we’ve done this for over 21 years.
“All the hardships that my husband and other servicemembers went through when they were deployed motivated me to start For The Troops,” says Paula, adding, “We always have troops deployed, all over the world--it’s not a political issue; it doesn’t matter who the president is. It’ll never stop, we will always have troops deployed,” so supporting our troops is a great way to ease some of their burden.
“They’re away from their families and loved ones for holidays and special occasions; they sacrifice so much for us,” says Paula.
For more information, visit ForTheTroops.org or call 805.306.0830.