AWTR Show #939: GivingTuesdayMilitary

As milspouses, we often experience acts of generosity from strangers. The support can look like a snack and a place to rest at the USO or local schools writing cards and encouragement to our deployed spouses. Our guest Brittany Raines shares a way we can give back to our communities through GivingTuesdayMilitary (Nov 29, 2022).

On Army Wife Talk Radio, Annie sat down with the Director of Community Engagement for GivingTuesdayMilitary Brittany Raines to learn more about this amazing organization. Four milspouses launched GivingTuesdayMilitary in 2019 with the goal to inspire intentional acts of kindness that can create a ripple of change that spreads far and wide. That ripple is currently extending through 40 states and five countries. 

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Hurricane Ian: Army Vet Committed to Helping His Community

Since Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida, we’ve all watched the news reports with a sinking feeling. With so much destruction, so many of our hearts are broken for our friends, family and communities across the state. One thing is clear — there’s a lot of pain but there are also a lot of great people doing their part.

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AWTR Show #929: Operation Gratitude

After 9-11, Operation Gratitude founder Carolyn Blashek began volunteering at the Los Angeles airport military lounge. In March 2003, a soldier came into the office and broke down at her desk. He was on leave from a war zone for his mother’s funeral, his wife had left him, and his only child had died as an infant—he had no one else in his life. It was then he told her,

“I’m going back over there. I know I won’t make it back this time, but it really doesn’t matter because no one would even care.” Right then, Blashek realized that when bullets are flying, troops must believe that someone at home cares about them as an individual. That’s when operation gratitude was born.

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Honoring Those Who Serve Through the American Red Cross

March is celebrated as Red Cross month. During this time, communities honor the individuals across the country who turn compassion into action, helping others in times of crisis. The Red Cross Month celebration has been an annual tradition since 1943, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the first Red Cross Month proclamation.

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Why Military Families Should Volunteer

There was a time I wanted a career in front of a camera, behind a news desk. That was before I discovered my love of serving military families.

Actually, I had accepted a job as a news anchor in Maine when my life took an unexpected turn toward military support volunteerism. My husband was working on his Ph.D. when the Navy recruited him—to borrow a line from the movies, “it was an offer too good for him to refuse.”

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Milspouses Provide Relief to Afghan Evacuees

I’m on an airplane right now, looking out of the window and marveling at the beauty of the clouds up here, above it all. Truthfully, I’m one part in awe and one part ready to not feel anymore turbulence as I admire the expansive sky. But as we all know, if you take a journey by air, turbulence is usually an unwanted part of any long flight on a plane.  

Over this last week, I’ve spent my time in Germany. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of spending every day at Ramstein Air Base and U.S. Army Garrison Rhine Ordnance Barracks. While there, I supported American Red Cross teams as they selflessly and tirelessly provided relief to Afghan evacuees who are making their way to America.

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