July 2019 Newsletter

Troopathon 12 Raises Over $700,000.00 in Troop Support!

Troopathon 12 Broadcast Live, June 28, 2019 from Newsmax Studios featuring a star-studded guest list of patriotic celebrities & heroes capping off our month-long troop care package support drive. Read more…

Troopathon 12 broadcast Live from Newsmax Studios culminating with an encore presentation on July 4, raising a massive $734,676.00! We are truly humbled by the incredible support from so many generous patriots who took the time to let our troops know that we are here for them, we love them and we support them.

With the help of a dedicated staff, volunteers and a star-studded broadcast featuring luminaries from film, television, radio, sports and some very special military heroes, Troopathon 12 was one of our biggest successes ever!

Troopathon 12 was hosted by our talented trio of veteran journalists, Melanie Morgan, MAF chairman and Executive Producer; Rita Cosby, award-winning news anchor, correspondent, radio personality, and best selling author and Newsmax\’s own John Bachman, a veteran anchor, producer and reporter dedicated to the mission of raising awareness of our troops and for our care package program for our heroes serving overseas in war zones like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and around the Middle East.

Troopathon 12 featured an amazing list of pro-troop celebrities from movie and television stars, to radio personalities, recording artists, authors and athletes who proudly lent their talents to send inspirational messages of support to our troops as well as issuing challenges to their fellow patriots to spread the word and the wealth to ensure our brave troops receive the support they deserve.

Guest Spotlight: Irving Locker & Evander Holyfield Joined Us Live on Set

WWII hero Irving Locker, a D-Day survivor who helped liberate Berlin & boxing legend and World Champion Evander Holyfield are The Real Deal when it comes to supporting our troops on the front lines. Read more…

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This year we were blessed to have amazing guests including D-Day survivor Staff Sgt. Irving Locker, 94 who captured the hearts of the American public during the SOTU address as the energetic gallery guest of President Donald Trump. Locker memorably leaped to his feet and gave the President an ear to ear grin and an enthusiastic fist pump and thumbs up when President Trump surprised Locker by mentioning him by name and referring to Locker and his fellow Normandy survivors as heroes.

Meeting Irving Locker and his beautiful wife Bernice was truly inspirational. At 94, and 89 respectively, the Lockers are living history and both seem to have found the secret source of the Fountain of Youth. Irving and Bernice drove four hours to join us in studio for Troopathon and bounded about with amazing energy and graciously shared their stories with us. The Lockers recently returned from France where they had gone s special guests to the 75th D-Day Anniversary Remembrance.

Irving shared incredible stories with us about his service and even after 75 years he spoke passionately about how special it was for him to receive packages from home. He spoke of how the soldiers would all share the bounty when a package arrived and that tradition holds true today.

Irving and Bernice are so committed to our troops they even took the time to sponsor a Troopathon Care Package!

Troopathon 12 was honored to welcome Evander Holyfield as a special in-studio guest. Mr Holyfield is passionate about the need to support our troops and was extremely humble when he mentioned the sacrifices our troops make every day in service to our nation. He shared stories of his personal belief in service and faith and how important he feels it is to shoe our support to those who sacrifice every day in the name of freedom.

Melanie, and Rita took him at his word and playfully issued a challenge to our supporters that Evander Holyfield had agreed to eat an MRE, the ready to eat packaged meals our troops often find is their only meal option while out in the field. Our hosts stated that if one of our supporters would donate $1,000.00, then Evander Holyfield and host John Bachman would each sample the MRE live on set. Thanks to Monthly Smiles Member and Troopathon Angel Gail L. (you KNOW who you are!) who immediately accepted the challenge both John and Evander took seveal bites of the MRE and deemed them \”Not as bad as they look!\”

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Troopathon Over, So What\’s Next? A Packing Party Naturally!

Volunteers from the Sacramento chapter of the National Charity League (NCL) prepared hundreds of care packages for the troops for an upcoming shipment thanks to our generous Troopathon donors. Read More…

HUGE THANKS to everyone who has donated during our month-long Troopathon Drive. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we reached our fundraising goals for Troopathon 2019 and kept raising money for the troops until the 4th of July. Now we\’ve set our sights on shipping all the boxes and fulfilling the orders for everyone who donated over Troopathon. So we have many more volunteers scheduled to come help out in the coming weeks!

We continually hear from our troops that they truly appreciate the great items included in these boxes. It\’s hard to imagine that our troops aren\’t given everything they need as provided free by the military, but the vast majority of troops are responsible for getting necessities from PX stores like a mini shopping market on bases.

But what about the troops who are in small combat outposts who don\’t rotate back to a larger base with a PX for weeks at a time? It\’s up to us to fill the gap, or pick up the slack, to get the troops some awesome treats and personal care items they really need!

SFC James Menard was all smiles when he discussed how good it feels to receive a package from home. \”Just knowing someone who doesn\’t even know you, took the time to send a package means everything\” stated SFC Menard. \”We all share everyone shares a package, it\’s like Christmas, and you never forget that feeling, it just feels so good, especially if you are having a bad day.\” SFC Menard has deployed three times to the Middle East.

MAF is Now the Official Troop Care Package Partner to the L.A. Rams!

As part of our commitment to supporting our troops on the front lines, MAF is proud to announce we have partnered up with the Los Angeles Rams as their Official Troop Care Package Resource! Read More…

Recently one of of our soldiers and his buddies received some special care package from Move America Forward, in addition to the awesome snacks, personal care items and notes of support found in all our Troop Support Care Packages, these packages had some very special swag including the amazing Los Angeles Rams Salute to Service Banner shown above, as well as cool draw string Rams bags, water bottles, special woven bracelets and more.

Alex M. and his buddies received the very first ever Rams Troop Care Packages from MAF. Rams fans can submit the information for deployed soldiers who would like to receive special care packages including the Rams swag and MAF will make sure these brave deployed Los Angeles Rams fans and soldiers can really feel the love from home with a special shout our from their favorite team — GO RAMS!

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And Just because we love our troops, we wanted to make sure Alex had just one more special surprise! Scott Raab, our Outreach Director arranges for Alex, who is coming home from deployment to be part of the Los Angeles Rams Everyday Heroes Day where Alex has been invited to join along with fellow veterans and active duty members of the military and first responders to attend Los Angeles Rams Training Camp on Friday, August 2^nd for Everyday Heroes Day. Alex was more than excited to accept the invitation and we can\’t wait to share some of his photos with you from the event!

Photo of the Month… Troops Helping Troops!

MAF relies heavily on all our fantastic volunteers. With the help of local active duty troops, we recently shipped over 1,200 care packages to deployed troops throughout the Middle East.

Our Troops are the Best!