Families First Campaign

Helping Families Attend Graduation of their Future Hero

As parents, having your kids join any branch of the military brings with it many emotions. Yes there’s pride and joy, but there’s also the sense of the unknown. While there are many avenues of support for the soldier and his or her immediate family, there is no financial support for the parents, spouse or legal guardians of what we call our “Future Heroes”.

Going through Basic Training and AIT – Advanced Individual Training – is a grueling and often lonely time not only for the future hero, but also for the family. There’s very little communication as the recruit goes through the daily grind of getting into shape and trained to be a soldier in the military. Then when it comes time for graduation, it’s a huge accomplishment and one that should be shared with loved ones.

Unfortunately, many future heroes go through graduation with no family present as a result of lack of funds for the family to travel to whatever base their training took place at.

This is where the Families First Campaign comes in.

It is the aim of General Sarge to not only encourage military families, but also provide a way for parents, a spouse, or a legal guardian to attend the very important graduation day of their loved one. For us our travel costs from Upstate New York to Fort Benning, GA were around $1200. All too often such a dollar amount is simply to high and that means the loved one has no family present to applaud them at their graduation.

The Families First Campaign operates under the umbrella of Fresh-Wind Ministries, a non-profit organization which means anyone can make a donation to the Families First Campaign and receive a tax deductible donation receipt at the end of each year. Aside from direct donations to the Families First Campaign through Fresh-Wind Ministries there are other ways you can support this campaign too.

1. General Sarge has teamed up with Team Beachbody and Tony Horton’s P90X program. A portion of the sales of the P90X fitness program, or any other Team BeachBody program, goes to the Families First Campaign.
2. General Sarge is also proud to be teamed up with Retired Marine Major Hank Salmans of Devil Dog Brew Coffee offering an exclusive General Sarge Coffee-Post Card Travel Pack. The proceeds from the sales of the Coffee-Post Card Travel Pack go toward the Families First Campaign too. Also, if you order any products directly from the Devil Dog Brew website, when you check out be sure to enter the discount code “Sarge” and receive a 5% discount on your purchase, which in turn is then directed back to General Sarge.
3. General Sarge also has a store with exclusive General Sarge merchandise. The store includes such products as coffee mugs, t-shirts, dog tags, mouse-pads, clothing and more! A portion of all sales from the store also goes toward the Families First Campaign.

The TG Bears Duty Bear!

We’re also thrilled to be teamed up with TG Bears and thank them for their support of the Families First Campaign. We are working toward presenting a TG Bears Duty Bear to soldiers we support through the Families First Campaign. TG Bears will donate one of their handmade Duty Bears to the campaign for every seven bears bought by clicking the banner below!

You can also donate directly online via Pledgie!

Thanks for your support of the Families First Campaign and helping a parent/spouse or legal guardian off-set their travel expenses to attend the graduation of their loved one from Basic Training.

Staying Army Strong!
Dr. Rus