How You Can Help
The levels of involvement can be up to you and your situation. It’s really endless what you can do and what we can accomplish, “together”. But I’ll give some examples.
Of course, to run and operate the therapy farm and facilitate the fruition of successful and enjoyable “survivor’s retreat weeks” will take “generous and ongoing financial donations”. The good news is that our federal government has approved and granted this great charity 501 c3 status. Therefore, any financial contribution/donations you make will be 100% tax deductible to the full the extent of the law. So you not only “feel good” for “doing good”, you get to write it off. WIN/WIN. So yes, we definitely hope you can be generous if you are more fortunate than others, and show you care. But “dollars” are only one way to help. Here are some other contributions that will be just as important.
Donating your time at the scheduled “survivor’s retreat weeks”, fundraising and public awareness events. Cooking food at the events, teaching arts and crafts to the children. Taking these deserving families to Fantasy island amusement park, Thundering surf, miniature golfing, to the Barnegat lighthouse, on the canoeing and horseback riding outings, etc. Something that will really be a great help in the upcoming seasons will be, if you have an RV or travel trailer either on a “seasonal” campsite or sitting on your property most of the year and you can find it in your heart to set it up for these families to use when we schedule the week long survivor’s retreat weeks, that will save the charity from spending as much on lodging for these events. If you have a boat and can take the families fishing, crabbing or even for a fun day of “tubing”, they will really enjoy it.
All of those suggestions are for the “here and now” ways you can help. But our slogan of “GET INVOLVED/STAY INVOLVED” is important in that we find volunteers and members who will “stay in touch” through the year and through the “years”. Say you are a retired teacher or someone great at math and one of the children could use some tutoring via “zoom”, wow, what difference that could make for one of these children. Or as they get closer to deciding on careers that interest them, they can reach out via the charity website and ask members questions about what is required for a specific career, job or trade. Your input on the benefits of being in the career they are interested in could really help them know if it might be the right thing for them. Basically ..... ongoing advice and mentorship can be great for them. Remember, it many cases these kids are being raised with only one parent. And that parent will appreciate your help and involvement to help their child.
We appreciate any other suggestions that you can think of that are of course, of a positive nature.
“THE FUTURE”
You can see that as we begin this journey, it is at the “local” level. In addition to hosting the “survivor’s retreat weeks” each summer here in Ocean County and on Long Beach Island, the plan is to grow and branch out. We will be working with campgrounds in the Poconos, the Catskills, Rehoboth Delaware, Virginia Beach, Chincoteague Virginia and others in the surrounding states to facilitate “retreat weeks” in those areas. Then the rest of the east coast including the Carolinas and Florida. As years go on and the caring community of REAL AMERICANS giving back to the families of AMERICAN HEROES continues to grow, we hope to do this on a national level for deserving families throughout our great country. They deserve it. Their sacrifice was to protect us and our “FREEDOM”.
