As some of you may have seen, I started an initiative a couple of weeks ago called #vetsmatter. The idea is to get the hashtag to trend on Twitter in lots of places *before* Veterans Day and it’s also the hope that that awareness will help raise funds for various organizations that support veterans since our government seems to be backing away from such efforts.
Well, serendipity has struck. We have a chance to make a real difference in a veteran’s life and we can watch the results come in!
A couple of days ago my friend Raúl Colon pointed me to the direction of Mark Horvath’s blog. Mark (known as @hardlynormal on Twitter) works tirelessly on behalf of the homeless, and right now he has one person in mind, his “brother” Lanny. Lanny has been homeless for four years and finally has gotten a place to stay, but he has no furnishings or other essentials that you need for home-living.
That’s where we come in.
Mark is trying to raise just $1,000, but we only have until October 2nd. So here’s my idea.
We write blog posts about veterans – your experiences if you are a vet, your parents, your friends, thoughts in general, whatever you want, and then at the end you link to Mark’s blog and raise awareness for this (measurable) effort. Tweet out your posts with the #vetsmatter hashtag and feel free to CC me when your post goes live.
Does this sound good? I hope so, because we only have a couple of days to make this happen! Let’s do it!
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgold/5901794855/ via Creative Commons
I’m behind on my emails – and finally am reading this way far away from Veteran’s Day.
But, I’m in Hong Kong and a ship is in town. There must be 20+ marines in this faux-Mexican establishment.
One of the best things you can do…When you see someone who is (or who has been) in the military, say “thanks.” One sweet 20-something asked me where he could by an electric adapter. He found one, came back to show me and thank me. I thanked him for what he does for the world.
It doesn’t take much – but means a lot.
Janet | expateducator.com