One act of kindness can change the world. It is with this in mindset that local GivingTuesdayMilitary (GTM) Chapter Ambassadors, Amanda Collier and Melissa Johnson, were led to start a campaign to help the Afghan refugees that were evacuated from their homeland and moved to the Fort Bliss community.
“With all the bad stuff going on in the world we want to be able to share the generosity with everyone so they can still see that kindness is happening all around us,” Amanda Collier, GivingTuesdayMilitary Ambassador shared.
Being military spouses of soldiers who have served in Afghanistan and some who are leading the mission here on post today, these ladies along with Chapter member, Nicole Drouin, were determined to find a way to help.
They reached out to National undergarment companies and department stores in the area for in-kind donations of clothing and shoes. They created a flyer and an Amazon WishList and posted it to their Chapter Facebook Group, GivingTuesdayMilitary-Fort Bliss, El Paso, TX Area.
Organizers say the link was shared dozens of times by their families, friends, acquaintances and throughout their military networks and in less than a week an overwhelming outpouring of generosity came flooding in. They received several donations made to their local
drop-off locations and 146 packages, which were purchased through the Amazon link by kindness warriors all over the country.
As of Wednesday, they have received 1,450+ items in support of their mission. As a result, Amanda, Melissa, and Nicole would like to thank everyone near and far who have answered the call to help.
On Wednesday, these ladies unpacked, sorted, logged, and delivered all of these items to the Armed Services YMCA El Paso, who are in direct support of the evacuees in our area.
Officials add that GivingTuesdayMilitary Fort Bliss/El Paso will continue their efforts for the foreseeable future.
GivingTuesdayMilitary was founded in 2019 by active duty military spouses Maria Reed, Jessica Manfre, and Samantha Gomolka who were brought together through the Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year program.
Together they hope to unite all branches of service, Veterans, family members of those who have served, and patriotic supporters in a global day of giving back to the communities they live and work in.
The 2019 inaugural GivingTuesdayMilitary reached 2.5 million people.
For more details about GivingTuesday Military, click here. For those who would like to donate, please locate one of the bins they have set up locally or select items from the Amazon Wish List via this link.
For our previous stories on the Afghan refugees at Fort Bliss, click here.
