Last Tuesday Of November Can Equal Giving Back To Military

With the month of November quickly coming to an end, I can say I have successfully survived the important holidays of the month, besides one: the one which I find allows me to be a little more compassionate and forthright with what I see the holidays truly as. It's Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday falls on November 28 this year, and after all the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, it may be a great time to think a little more globally and give to the military community.

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As a military family, I often try and look for nonprofit organizations which do a ton of good not only for the Active Duty side of the life, but also for the veterans, families and for the community. I find successes of this life can quickly and often times come a little easier when we can invest ourselves into something a little bigger then what is right in front of us.

By checking out the Giving Tuesday website (www.givingtuesday.org) you can find a list of organizations which support military past, present and future. I am going to give a brief description of a few.

Wounded Warriors (www.woundedwarriorproject.org) is one organization which hits home for me. My hero was a recipient of its resources back in 2011 due to a medical condition while he was serving and had to be medically evacuated out of the place he was deployed. It was Wounded Warriors who made sure, during the process of transitions from out of that particular country back into the United States, we had all the resources and information for me to feel calmness and answer questions on next steps. My hero had a small condition, and the effects were scary for us but minimal compared to some things much bigger and longer lasting. What the organization does is a constant reminder that someone is always there by your side.



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Navy Marine Corps Relief Society (www.nmcrs.org) is a nonprofit financial organization which helps service members in financial situations in which a loan may be required. The unique thing about the organization is the loan interest percentage is always zero. Yep, always. So what a service member borrows, based off of need and organization, is what they pay back with no interest. That is a dollar-for-dollar ability to support a service member when they may need assistance for rent, or food, or maybe even to travel for a family emergency in another location. The Navy Relief Society is a wonderful organization which involves itself within the community with teaching service members how to budget for the future and even help educate and prepare for those who may be expecting a new baby. Finally, one more amazing thing about this organization is it relies heavily on volunteers. This allows military spouses, like myself, to volunteer, being engaged and learning workforce skills to keep the resume up to date.

Lastly, an organization which is more on the realistic side of military life is The Wingman Foundation (www.wingmanfoundation.org/mission). The mission the Wingman Foundation is to honor the sacrifices of our fallen air warriors and support the families they've left behind. This organization supports families with programs and rememberances, and the list will continue. It is the true showmanship of taking care of their own, which is what the military culture survives on.

While there are so many organizations which can benefit from selfless giving, these are just a few of my favorite. At sometime or another, my family and my finances have been supported by or helped to support them. As we continue to knock out the holiday to-do list, I hope Giving Tuesday will be one of those items.