President’s Update
President’s Update: July 26, 2010
Fans, Friends, & Heroes,
Greetings! I hope everyone’s having a great summer so far, although summer never seems to last long enough! As record heat waves hit our country, Wish for Our Heroes continues to set records as well. I say this every time, but it’s amazing how far we’ve come in just the past 8 months. Our volunteers, supporters, and fans continue to work their tails off to ensure we’re granting as many wishes as possible.
As we approach Wish #50, I’d like to take a second to reflect on the last few months. We granted a record 15 wishes in the month of May – wishes ranging from buying a vehicle to sending a deployed soldier’s wife on to the set of Army Wives. In June and July, we have continued the momentum. Just this past week, one lucky specialist from Fort Hood had his wish granted when he played a round of golf with the Dallas Cowboys’ QB Tony Romo. Other celebrities (Mack Brown, Kyle Chandler, Terrance Newman, Roy Williams to name a few) mingled with 5 other lucky wish recipients during a celebrity golf tournament. These are what I call ‘fun’ wishes. While the majority of wishes we grant are necessity-based wishes, ‘fun’ wishes are just that—–fun for our wish recipients. Things like mingling with celebrities definitely qualify as ‘fun wishes’.
So after the first 6 months of 2010, what’s left to come? First and foremost, we have over 100 wishes in the queue right now to be granted. We can’t do this without your help. We must continue to spread the word and raise money to assist in granting these wishes. Secondly, we need volunteers willing to assist in helping us with our daily operations. Volunteers are so critical to our success, because we have no paid employees. In order to grow, we need to continue to grow our team of incredible volunteers. Finally, please share any ideas you may have with us. If you know anyone who may be interested in donating or helping us grant wishes, please let us know. Without your ideas, we wouldn’t be where we’re at today.
Kristen and I had the opportunity last week to take a group of soldiers out to dinner from Camp Atterbury, Indiana. These guys just returned from a 12-month tour in Baghdad, Iraq. Aside from eating their first real meal in a long time, they spent a lot of time telling us about the current situation in Iraq. I was absolutely shocked to hear how much safer and secure the country is now versus just a couple years ago. Unfortunately our media doesn’t do a good job of painting this picture for the general public, so at W4OH, we’re going to make an effort to bring you stores and accounts from our troops on the front lines. Look for these articles on our website (www.wish4ourheroes.org) in the next few weeks.
As always, I want to thank all of our friends, fans, supporters, and most of all, our heroes. Thank you for defending our freedom. As you look out for us, please understand we’re looking out for you too.
Until next time…..
Jeff Wells
President & Founder, Wish for Our Heroes
jwells@wish4ourheroes.org
President’s Update – 4/10/10
Greetings Fans, Friends, & Heroes!
Wow, what an exciting month for Wish for Our Heroes! Thanks to your hard work and dedication, we were able to win the $50,000 Pepsi grant, which will allow us to grant a whole bunch of wishes! Your support also allowed us to grant our largest wish to-date for Troop 701, a military-sponsored Boy Scout troop in San Antonio, TX. We have several exciting events coming up including 2 golf tournaments and many exciting wishes. I’m very proud of our entire organization: our board members, volunteers, family, friends, and supporters have allowed us to grow very quickly and grant many more wishes than we originally thought possible at this point. Remember, we only launched 4 months ago! When you have a free moment, take a glance at the wishes we’re granting now at.
http://wish4ourheroes.org/wishes/grant-a-wish
Also, please sign up to become a fan of our Facebook site, and if you’re looking to purchase a cool present for someone, glance through our eBay celebrity memorabilia items for sale – as always 100% of proceeds go directly toward our troops.
Great work everyone! Until next month…
Jeff Wells
President & Founder, Wish for Our Heroes
President’s Update – 3/10/10
Greetings Fans, Friends, & Heroes!
We recently completed our first quarter as a foundation, and we’ve managed to accomplish a lot in a short period of time. We’ve granted 20 wishes, encompassing all branches of the military, across 9 states at a value of $30,000. We’re not content to stop and celebrate just yet – we have a lot of work to do, and we can’t do it without your help.
Each month, we’ll highlight ways that you can help in our e-newsletter. Some of these involve making donations, and others cost nothing – only a little bit of your time or just helping to spread the word in your daily travels. As a young, grass-roots movement, we need to continue to raise awareness and grow our fan base, so we can reach out and help more heroes each month! This month, you can help us on our march toward 10,000 Facebook fans, or submit an application for a deserving member of the military, who you think is deserving of a spot in Kyle Chandler’s celebrity golf tournament in Austin, TX – this is an all-expenses paid family trip to a resort in Austin for two deserving soldiers and their families. Finally, thank you so much for your support. We welcome any feedback you may have as we strive to make this newsletter more effective each month.
Jeff Wells
President & Founder, Wish for Our Heroes
President’s Update – 2/10/10
Friends, Fans, & Heroes,
Happy February!! I hope 2010 has been kind to everyone so far. At Wish for Our Heroes, we’ve been busy granting wishes and building our infrastructure, in an effort to increase our wish-granting capacity. As a non-profit foundation, we must ensure that we keep our expenses as low as possible, so that we can maximize the money contributed toward granting wishes. To date, we have achieved a 90% ratio, which means that 90 % of ALL incoming revenue is contributed directly toward granting wishes. The majority of charities operate in the 70 – 80 % range, with the top charities hovering around 85 %. We’re not trying to be better than other foundations – we just want to ensure that the money is going directly to the people who need it: our brave heroes. We have also averaged a turn rate of less than 2 weeks. This means that when a donation comes into the foundation, it is paid back out (toward granting wishes) in less than 14 days: the point is, we’re not holding your money! We want to send it out immediately to deserving members of our Armed Forces.
I’d like to briefly discuss the process we use for identifying and granting wishes. We receive wishes several different ways. The most common means is through our website. Our website (www.wish4ourheroes.org) allows anyone to submit a wish for any active-duty member of our Armed Forces. We also receive wishes through word-of-mouth submissions. These include phone calls from past wish recipients, friends, family, etc. Finally, we receive recommendations directly from military bases: chains of command, public affairs offices, etc.
Immediately upon receipt of a wish, we add it to our master wish tracker. We assign a numerical order of merit based on the following factors: urgency, financial situation of wish recipient, legitimacy, location, and branch of service. Then, our volunteers ensure legitimacy of each wish by talking to friends and family of the recipient, members of the recipient’s chain of command, and in some cases, taking a glance at some of their financial information, etc. Each week, our ‘Wish Committee’ meets, which consists of several volunteers and members of our Foundation board. We determine categories for each wish. Wishes falling in the category of ‘Grant Immediately’ will be granted by Foundation funds within days. Wishes falling in the category of ‘Website’ will be posted on our website for people to donate toward. After a period of time (typically 30 days) posted on our website, the Foundation will pay the difference and grant the wish. Another wish category, ‘Coordination-Needed’, typically involves unique wishes that require additional coordination – volunteers, wish sponsors, partners, etc. Finally, we have categories we assign wishes that can’t be granted at that particular moment. These wishes stay on our tracker but won’t be granted for the next 30 days unless the situation changes (urgency, etc). Our Foundation has a budget, just like any other business, and we only have so much money available to grant wishes. Rarely will we ever totally disqualify a wish – fraudulent activity, extravagant spending, things like that will disqualify a wish.
As you can see from this process, there’s no specific science to granting wishes. We want to grant every single one of them, but some are more urgent than others, and we want to help those people that are in dire need first. I want our donors to feel comfortable that we have a process in place for evaluating each and every wish and ensuring their money is allocated as they desire.
Of course, none of this would be possible without our network of phenomenal volunteers. We are bringing an average of one volunteer per month on-board. If you’re interested in volunteering, please fill out our volunteer form at www.wish4ourheroes.org.
We’re entering our third week of celebrity E-Bay auctions. You can see what items are being auctioned each week on the homepage of our website. We have over 100 pieces of autographed celebrity memorabilia to auction off, so please check back often. Help us spread the word, and help us by bidding on these items. It’s a great opportunity, because you can make a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation and also receive a piece of autographed memorabilia to hang on your wall. Every piece of memorabilia was kindly donated by a celebrity who supports and sponsors our Foundation.
That’s all for now. Thank you all for your support. Lots of cool wishes in the works, so check back often!
Jeff Wells
President & Founder
President’s Update – 1/19/2010
Friends, Fans, and Most Importantly, Our Heroes,
Happy New Year! I hope 2010 has started out with a bang (in a good way) for all of you! We have continued to ride the momentum of from December 2009, as we march toward the close of our first quarter as a Foundation. As we approach the 90 day mark, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the past 3 months. We launched November 2, 2009. Since then, we have granted 15 wishes, covering all branches of the Armed Forces. We’ve spanned multiple states, including venturing outside the Continental U.S. The total value of the wishes granted-to-date is just over $20,000. We have raised just under $25,000 in total donations. We have reached out to several military bases, and we have great working relationships with many of them. Celebrities have taken notice – over 70 celebrities have donated signed pieces of memorabilia to help us raise money for our foundation. The media has taken notice – 2 front page stories on major publications, 3 TV news stories, and coverage in over 300 publications. All of this has happened in our first 75 days or so. Well guess what? This isn’t enough. We have only begun to make headway toward our goal of granting one wish for every deserving member of our military. 15 wishes is a drop in the bucket for the hundreds of thousands of soldiers out there who need our help, but we have to start somewhere.
This reminds of the story of the little boy walking along the beach….scattered along the beach for miles were thousands of sand dollars that had been washed up on the sand. The tide had gone down, and the sand dollars had no chance of survival. The little boy ran along the beach, picking up sand dollars and throwing them into the ocean as quickly as possible. A curious passerby stopped and observed the boy. After watching for five minutes or so, the passerby walked over to the boy and asked him, “Son, why are you running along trying to save those sand dollars….there are too many of them. You can’t possibly make a difference!” As the little boy picked up another sand dollar and hurled it into the ocean he replied, “I made a difference to that one.”
As a Foundation, we don’t have the means quite yet to reach out to each and every deserving member of our military, and in a lot of cases, we don’t have the means to grant wishes as large as we would like them to be. But as each day passes, and with your help, we’re able to grow the size and number of wishes we’re able to grant. This is a grass-roots movement , and if we continue to spread the word to everyone we know, millions of people will be involved, and the sky will be the limit.
We have some new things we’re doing this month. Each week we’ll be auctioning off an item or set of items donated by one of our celebrity supporters. Check out our website: www.wish4ourheroes.org and Ebay for our latest item(s). We are also selling bumper stickers and magnets on our website….buy a couple for friends, family members, and co-workers.
Thank you so much for helping us achieve 1,000 fans on Facebook! Because of your help, one of our sponsors donated an additional $1,000, which is huge for us. Please help us continue to spread the word – let’s shoot for 10,000 fans!
It has been a wonderful first quarter, but we’re just getting started. Thank you for all of your support, Happy New Year, and God Bless the men and women of our United States military.
Jeff Wells
President & Founder, Wish for Our Heroes
President’s Update – 12/15/09
To Our Friends, Fans, and Most Importantly, Our Heroes:
I want to apologize for not sending out an update since Thanksgiving. The last few weeks have been extremely busy for our Foundation. It’s really exciting to see – we’re gaining momentum, and thanks to the hard work of our friends, fans, and volunteers, the word is spreading quickly. You’ve heard me in the past – I’ve begged and pleaded for everyone to help us find wishes to grant for our service members. Well, thank you for all of your help – in the past week, we have received over 17 wishes. These wishes range from reuniting families, helping families out for Christmas, assisting in home repairs, and even helping a soldier repair his badly damaged vehicle. Now that we have several wishes to work with, we will be posting many wishes to our website for potential donors’ review. If you are attracted to a particular wish, you can choose to contribute directly to that wish, and 100% of your donation goes directly toward granting it (along with a meter that tracks the progress toward completion). If you haven’t seen this function on the website yet, check out http://wish4ourheroes.org/grant-a-wish, or just click on ‘Grant A Wish’ from our home page: www.wish4ourheroes.org.
On the wish granting front, we have granted 4 wishes in the last 4 days, and many more coming this month. In the last four days we started by helping to reunite an Air Force family stationed at Randolph AFB in San Antonio, TX, with their family in Wisconsin. Then we helped a wounded soldier at Fort Hood achieve his dream to start his own business as a mechanic. Then we helped fly a member of the Navy home for the holidays, and finally, we helped make Christmas a little brighter for an Army family in Indiana, whose house burned down just a few weeks ago. With the holidays upon us, we want to grant as many wishes as humanly possible, and we will continue to grant them as quickly as possible.
Wish for Our Heroes has been all over the media the last few weeks – we were featured on the front page of the ‘Killeen Daily Herald’, as well as several other publications. We want to thank all of our friends in the media who have helped us to spread the word.
Finally, I want to mention SPC Michael Hampton, our 5th wish recipient. I had the honor of joining the ‘Wish’ team in granting this wish at Fort Hood, Texas. Michael has two passions in life – the Infantry and cars. Michael’s father and grandfather were mechanics…he has been turning wrenches since he can remember. When Michael was seriously wounded in Iraq, he was told that he would no longer be allowed to remain in the Infantry. Recently married, Michael and his wife, Celeste, were thrust into a future of uncertainty. Michael’s desire is to turn to his other passion, cars, as a mechanic when he is medically retired from the Army. Our Foundation helped to grant his wish, but that’s not what I want to emphasize here. I want to emphasize Michael’s desire to serve his country. Once again, Michael didn’t choose to focus on the bad things that happened to him a result of Army-life. He chose to focus on how lucky he is to be a member of the Infantry, to be married to Celeste, and to work on cars now for a living. Here is young man who, as a result of injuries sustained in the Army, has an arthritic condition similar to that of a 90-year old man. Does he spend time showing anger toward the Army or feeling sorry for himself? No. In his quiet demeanor, Michael only talks about the good things. I probably sound like a broken record at this point, because I’ve emphasized this point several times in my updates. The point is that our service members are selfless and dedicated to nothing more than serving our great country. Every time I have the opportunity to meet one of our heroes, I think about how difficult their lives must be, but then they tell me how lucky they are. Remarkable, truly remarkable.
Please help us continue to spread the word. Now that the holidays are here, we need your help more than ever to help us grant as many wishes as possible for our heroes. Once again, this is a grassroots movement, and we rely on all of us to spread the word for this great cause.
Thank you again for all of your support. Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers who make this possible. We will not stop. We will not relent. We will not falter.
Jeff Wells
President & Founder, Wish for Our Heroes
Former Captain, US Army
November 26, 2009
Greetings to all members of our United States Armed Forces, their families, friends, and the millions of wonderful supporters in our great nation:
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hopefully this letter finds you spending time with your loved ones – eating turkey, relaxing, watching football, all of the things you’re supposed to do on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time for us to give thanks for everything we’ve been given, everything that’s important to us. I’m personally thankful for so many things in my life – my family, my friends, my two pups, but most of all, my freedom. I have the ability, each and every day, to make decisions as I choose. Granted, each decision has consequences, but the point is that I have the ability to make them. Probably 75% of the people in this world do not have the same luxury that we have….their decisions are restricted by parameters set by someone other than themselves.
On Thanksgiving, I think about all of the sacrifices that have been made – all for the purpose of freedom. Freedom is not free. Hundreds of thousands of people have given their lives to ensure we can freely give thanks for everything that’s important to us. So, on this day dedicated to giving thanks, I am most thankful for our heroes who are standing guard against the forces who wish to deprive us of our freedom, earned through countless years of blood, sweat, and tears. Our heroes fight valiantly to ensure we have this opportunity to give thanks for years to come.
Aside from the obvious physical sacrifices our military members are making, there is a deep-rooted sacrifice being made by their families. For every deployed member of our military, there are members of their family left behind to deal with the day-to-day struggles of life. I have personally been there and seen the sacrifices made by the families of our military members. They are truly the backbone of our military, because without their constant support, it would be impossible for our heroes to do what they do. So, on this Thanksgiving Day, I am not only thankful for our brave heroes and what they’re doing – I’m thankful for their families who support them and allow them to accomplish their mission.
One of the main purposes of our Foundation is to assist the family members of our deployed soldiers – to help them with their day-to-day struggles. In the first few weeks of our Foundation, we have helped put food on the table, reunited families over the holidays, assisted a family in bringing a new child into this world, and we’ve fixed a soldier’s vehicle. The fact of the matter is that this just isn’t enough. We have tens of thousands of families we need to reach out to, and to do this, we need your help. Please help us continue to spread the word. If you’re able to contribute, you can do so at our website: www.wish4ourheroes.org. If you’re not able to contribute, it’s okay, but please tell everyone you know. We’re trying to reach out to corporations, so if you know of a corporation who may be interested in sponsoring our Foundation, please let us know. This is a grass-roots movement, and we can’t accomplish our mission of granting one wish for every deserving member of our military without your help.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Thank you for your continued support. We will not stop, and we will not rest until we have accomplished the mission of our Foundation. My heart goes out to all of our military members and their families – thank you for all that you do.
Jeff Wells
President, Phoenix-Wish for Our Heroes Foundation
Former Captain, United States Army
October 29, 2009
Greetings to all members of our United States Armed Forces, their friends, families, and the millions of wonderful supporters in our great nation:
I am proud and honored to announce that we have granted our first wish as a Foundation. I had the honor of travelling to Fort Hood, Texas this week to meet SPC Rob Forrest, a soldier of 2-7 Cavalry. I can’t quite explain to you the feelings and emotions involved in granting this wish for Rob, but I can tell you that Rob is a truly amazing person. You can read more about the specifics of his wish on our website (www.wish4ourheroes.org) or our Facebook site:
Rather than talk about his wish, I’d like to talk a little bit about Rob. He and his wife, Samantha, are the proud parents of four children: Michael, Nicolas, Jason, and Heather. Samantha and Michael suffer from severe health conditions which result in frequent visits to the emergency room. Meanwhile, Rob has deployed three times in the last five years – once to Afghanistan and twice to Iraq. When Rob deploys, guess who takes care of his family? Well, the answer is Samantha. I asked Rob how she’s able to do it with her health situation, and Rob’s reply was that Samantha is the strongest person he’s ever met. I asked Rob, because he lives on Fort Hood, if the base provides any assistance in mowing the lawn, taking care of their yard, etc. His answer was no – Samantha does it.
Now, let’s just think about this for a second. Rob is deployed for over a year at a time, and Samantha, despite her health situation, shoulders the burden of everything associated with their family. Samantha is truly an amazing woman.
The fact of the matter is that Samantha is not the only spouse shouldered with this burden. Certainly, Rob is not the only soldier dealing with the day-to-day strains of combat operations and fighting for his country, while dealing with the struggles of his family back home. Throw in the fact that Rob’s take home pay is $1,400 per month after taxes. Now, let’s think about that for a second. That’s $700 every two weeks. For those of our supporters out there who have a family of six, how much does your weekly grocery bill run?
The reality is there are tens of thousands of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen (and their families) who are in this same situation. Granting this wish for Rob and his family was a great start for our Foundation, but we can’t stop here. We can’t rest until we’ve been able to grant wishes for EVERY soldier dealing with these types of situations.
When we decided to launch this Foundation, I knew first-hand of the struggles our military members face every day. But I can tell you that regardless of what I thought I knew, when I looked Rob in the eye, and I listened to him speak, nothing could prepare me for that. Rob, despite the struggles of his family, was one of the most proud people I’ve ever had the honor of meeting. He reluctantly told me about their struggles, but then he smiled, and he told me about how lucky they are. He told me how lucky they are to have each other, to have what they’ve been given, and most importantly, how proud he is to be a husband to Samantha, a father to his children, and a member of the United States Army.
As I stated in my previous update, we’re not here to grant just one wish. We’re not here to grant ten wishes, or even one hundred. We’re here to grant one wish for EVERY deserving member of our active-duty armed forces. We absolutely cannot do this without your help. Help us spread the word – send Rob’s story to everyone you know. Help us raise money for our Foundation, volunteer, purchase a bracelet from our website, or refer us to corporations that may be interested in donating. Most importantly, if you know any deserving active-duty members of our armed forces, please submit a wish online.
Our official launch date is Monday, November 2nd. I thank everyone for your support – all of the volunteers that have made this possible. Now let’s take the next step and make this Foundation what it needs to be – what it will be.
Thank you,
Jeff Wells
President, Phoenix-Wish for Our Heroes Foundation
Former Captain, United States Army
———————————————–
August 28, 2009
Greetings to all members of our United States Armed Forces, their friends, families, and the millions of wonderful supporters in our great nation:
I am very pleased (and excited) to announce that the Phoenix-Wish For Our Heroes Foundation is in the final stages of set-up and will be launched within the next 30 days. The Foundation will focus on granting wishes for our active-duty military soldiers and their families, to relieve the burdens our soldiers and their families face every day, as guardians of our nation. To really understand the circumstances and hardships our brave soldiers face, and therefore the purpose of this Foundation, you don’t have to look very far. Try talking to a member of the military that you may know, or pick up the August 4th USA Today, and read the cover story. The average citizen in our country respects our military members for the sacrifices they make fighting to keep our country safe, but I guarantee you that 99% of military members would tell you that’s their job – that’s what they’re paid to do (though they’d also probably tell you they’re not paid very much to do it). What they’re not paid to do is deal with the pain and struggles their families have been subjected to, as they patiently endure deployment after deployment. They’re not paid to have their children fail to recognize them when they come back from a deployment, or to wonder each day (while they’re trying to fight for our country) how they’ll be able to afford child care, or education expenses.
Sure, there are hundreds of charities and foundations dedicated to the military – very good ones, but the majority of them are focused on extreme circumstances – wounded in action (WIA), killed in action (KIA), bankruptcy, etc. The purpose of this Foundation is not only to help soldiers (and families) falling into those extreme circumstances, but also to help the average soldier, who quietly does his/her job, day after day, and doesn’t ask for help – they deserve something too. So that’s what we’re going to do. With your help, we’re going to do this big, we’re going to do this right, and we’re going to grant a lot of wishes for our heroes and their families.
To kick this off, I’d like to introduce SSG Bernie Teich. Bernie and I fought together in Baghdad, Iraq during 2004-2005, Operation Iraqi Freedom II. Bernie returned to Baghdad in 2007 with the 1st Cavalry Division (Fort Hood Texas) and was seriously wounded. He lost his right leg, and sustained severe injuries to his left leg. Bernie has spent lots of time telling me about the physical, personal, and emotional struggles he has faced as a result of his injuries. To this day, he deals with pain and suffering none of us could imagine. What he won’t tell you is that he’s sorry it happened. He won’t tell you he regrets anything he ever did in the US Army. He WILL tell you he’s proud to have served his country, and he’d go back in a heart-beat. He’ll also tell you that he was showered with kindness by military charities around the country, and he appreciates every bit of it. And he’ll also explain to you that several of his fellow soldiers weren’t so ‘lucky’. They didn’t necessarily sustain the physical injuries Bernie did, but they dealt with depression, anger, family issues, and many other negative side-effects to life in the military. Most importantly, they were not able to receive the help they needed. Ok, that’s enough of me trying to tell you what Bernie would say – ask him yourself. Bernie will be one of our Foundation spokesmen, and to learn more about Bernie, check out our website or our Facebook and Twitter pages.
We decided to start this Foundation in honor of my dad, 1ST Thomas G. Wells (1933-2009). Dad passed away earlier this year, as a result of a rare type of cancer directly related to his Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam. Dad was a Marine Corps veteran of The Korean and Vietnam wars, and he dedicated his life to serving his country. Though not an emotional man, he expressed a deep love for the military soldiers serving our country, and we thought this would be a cause he’d be honored to serve. More to follow on Dad in the coming weeks….
In closing, I’d like to ask everyone for your assistance in helping to make this Foundation what it should be. We’re not here to make this a ‘mom and pop’ foundation, granting a wish here and there. Our goal is to make this big – really big. We want to grant not hundreds of wishes, but thousands and millions, and we want to do it fast. We want to do this the way Bernie or my Dad would do it. Please help us spread the word. Anyone can donate any amount to the Foundation, or if you’re not able to donate, we would love your assistance as a volunteer (volunteer link). 90% of all Foundation revenue will be utilized to grant wishes, and to achieve this goal, we really need your help. Please help us spread the word, and let’s give something back to our heroes who have given (and are giving) so much to us.
Thank you so much for your support.
Jeff Wells
President, Phoenix-Wish For Our Heroes Foundation
Former Captain, US Army
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