We finished up the summer with great success and are heading into the fall hunting season with lots of planned events! We are grateful for our reocurring events, but are also excited to continue to have new events hitting the books all the time. It just proves that there are so many gracious American Sportsmen in this country that want to honor our Heroes - we sincerely thank you for your support! Please take the time to look through the photos and a read a bit about how your help has changed the lives of these Heroes.
**Special note to Outlook users - please accept our apologies. Outlook does not allow for easy viewing of this format, so many of our photos and articles will come across a bit over top of each other. If you have the ability to open this in another web format (gmail, yahoo, etc) or from facebook, please do so!
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Text to Action!
Everyone loves to receive great deals, offers and specials and most everyone has the ability to receive text messages. WWIA has the opportunity to help you receive special offers via text messages while helping us out in the process - talk about WIN-WIN! (Think groupon® for your phone!)
How does this work? Text WWIA (as the text message) to short code 70000 (as the number). You will then receive a link to "opt in" to this savings program. Fill out your preferences so that you can receive offers and discounts that fit into your lifestyle. For every text message you receive, I-texts will donate a portion of the fee they receive from the advertiser to our Foundation. You will get NO MORE than 3 texts a day and you don't even have to open the text for us to get the credit! The bonus is that you can "opt out" just as easily if you are unhappy with the program - just text STOP to short code 70000 to end your enrollment.
If you are happy with the program and think your friends can benefit as well, please share the "opt-in" information! The more supporters we get, then more money we can raise for the Foundation - just by helping you receive great deals! For more info and FAQ's, go to: www.I-texts.com
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We Need your Vote!
Our Founder, John McDaniel, has been nominated for the "Lead a Rare Life" award through the Eagle Rare Foundation. This cash award is given to the person that best exemplifies the Eagle Rare Traits of Leadership, Courage, Survival, Heroism, Devotion, and Character. If you go to the link below please click on the Vote button. It is also possible to "share the link" or Tweet the link from there. The more votes he gets, the better chance he has of winning a donation for WWIA!
http://eaglerarelife.com/content/john-m-McDaniel
We have been told you can vote every day - so don't forget to show your support with your vote! Thank you for supporting John and his journey to support Wounded Warriors.
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ARCA Racing Series
11 July, Madison Speedway,
25 July, Lucas Oil Speedway
The WWIA car was on the track at Madison Speedway
on 11 July and at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis on 25 July.
WWIA Associates Kelsey Smith and Travis VonSeggern along with owner Ed Schell were on hand to assist with the WWIA / Assembly Products racecar
events! The days start with 2 practice rounds, then the qualifying rounds and then it on to the heat races. With a new driver and a great outlook, the WWIA car came in 19th even though they started at the back of the pack - Way to go Team WWIA and Assembly Products!
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Lake Erie Walleye Fishing
1 - 4 August
One of our great returning events hit a home run again! The 3rd Annual event with host committee of Larry & Steve Fielder and Joe Kallay of Ashtubula, OH, went well above and beyond. Our six Heroes were shown a grateful and patriotic community, they experienced the best walleye fishing in the world and most importantly, made new lifelong friends!
We sincerely thank the American Legion Post 103 & its Legion Riders for it's incredible reception and motorcycle escort, the city and community of Ashtabula, OH, for its warm welcome, the boat captains for putting us on walleye like the pro's they are, Mr. & Mrs. Kister for allowing us to use their marina and campsites for free and last but not least, to our Heroes for relaxing and opening up to let the magic happen!
The enormous support from the many volunteers and local community is very much appreciated! To see more of the weekend, click this link to a video filmed during the event.
YouTube: Lake Erie Video
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Washington Black Bear Hunt
3 - 9 August, Camp Stillwater
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Associate John Koenig and his great crew at John's Guide Service and WWIA's Camp Stillwater hosted yet another amazing event for 4 Heroes. The great Skagit Bear Hunt was on! With amazing weather and scenery, they guys had a blast tracking, glassing and hunting Bear in Washington State, in the North Cascade Mountains.
Heroes Jeremy, Corey, Chris and Michael had a great time hunting but also got the chance to bond around the Heroes' camp fire in the evenings where they build long lasting friendships as they talked about their shared experiences.
Check out our facebook page for even more pictures of this great adventure!
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Phillips Chain O' Lakes Muskie Classic
23 August
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Bob Bolz, our Northwoods of WI coordinator, was on hand for this fundraising event to support the mission of WWIA. The continued outpouring of enthusiasm from the folks in northern WI is amazing - we appreciate all you do in support of us and our Field Headquarters at Camp Hackett!
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eBay Giving Works/PayPal Giving Fund
Because we want to make sure you can support our mission in any way that fits into your lifestyle, we wanted to make you aware of a program that supports charities through buying and selling on eBay. The PayPal Giving Fund is the philanthropic arm of eBay Giving Works that allows you to purchase items designated by a special ribbon icon where a portion of each sale will be donated to WWIA. Additionally, users can sell items on eBay and set it up for WWIA to receive a portion of your specific sale. Please go to this link for more information!
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ON THE HORIZON
FUTURE EVENTS:
PA Cast & Blast
October 03, 2014 - October 06, 2014
Western PA Guided Archery Deer Hunt
October 16, 2014 - October 19, 2014
Bayfield Cast & Blast, 2014
October 16, 2014 - October 20, 2014
Camp Hackett (Group A)
October 23, 2014 - October 27, 2014
Canoga NY Ducks & Bucks
November 06, 2014 - November 09, 2014
Mississippi Cast and Blast
November 07 - November 10, 2014
South Dakota Pheasant Hunt
November 07 - November 10, 2014
TN Whitetail Deer Hunt
November 20 - 24, 2014
MO/KAN Ducks and Bucks
November 20 - 24, 2014
Plus more to come!
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Founder's Corner
As we head into the very busy fall season, I remain in awe of the amazing support we receive from people all over the country as we serve our Purple Heart Heroes. We thank you for your support and ask that you continue this commitment so that we have the ability to fulfill our mission.
There are many different ways to support WWIA! Go to wwiaf.org and click the donate now button on the top left of the homepage, Federal Employees can sign up to support us through the Combined Federal Campaign (#95412), sign up through your State Employees Fund (# differs in each state), or many private companies have matching gifts campaigns that will support WWIA. If you have questions about how to help, contact us today!
For this newsletter's "Inside Baseball," I would like to focus on a component of our mission statement. We state that we want to provide a means for Heroes to form connections within communities - this is a two sided goal. First, we want the Heroes to see that the American public truly cares about their sacrifices. A pancake breakfast honoring the Heroes or a community BBQ hosted in their honor allows our Wounded Warriors to see they are appreciated by the people hosting them. Secondly, it gives the community members a means to show personally our Heroes how much they care about them. We strive to facilitate these connections where the appreciation goes both ways and have found that great things happen when these type of opportunities are presented.
If you have an idea for a fundraiser or way to generate money in support of our mision, please contact us right away at info@wwiaf.org The more income we generate, the more Purple Heart Heroes we can serve! Looking forward to hearing your ideas!
Respectfully and Sincerely yours,
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Want to Help?
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Donations can be made as a one time donation, or if it is more budget friendly for you, it is easy to set up a monthly recurring donation so that you can support WWIA all year long - just go to the website and click on DONATE in the upper left corner!
Become a Member
Watch for WWIA's new MEMBERSHIP Program coming soon to our website. (Oct 2014) For an annual fee starting at $19.95, you can join and have 100% access to our Membership Rewards Program with discounts to over 1500 outdoor suppliers worldwide!
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Fundraisers
MOA of Northern WI, Veterans Golf Scramble: 14 July 2014, Oneida Country Club, Green Bay, WI. John McDaniel, Matt Tennessen and Josh Huber participated in this amazing event to support three different veterans charities. Due to the hard work of the organizers, with special thanks to Mike Egan, WWIA received over $8K in donations to support the building of the lodge at Camp Hackett!
Wausau Golf Scramble: 20 July, Indianhead Golf Course. Funds were raised from this golf event to support the Wausau Cast and Blast. WWIA is proud to receive such great support from the folks at Club 13 and the Bar at Wausau for all these years! Thanks for your commitment to Wounded Warriors.
Couples Retreat Fundraisers: The gracious communitiesin Wayne County, NY, hosted two different fundraisers to support the Upland NY Couples Retreat held the first weekend of Sept. The first one on 26th of July was a dinner / raffle/ auction held at Log Cabin Restaurant.
The second fundraiser was a Sporting Clays Tournament held at the Whispering Pines Retreat. Both were extremely successful and allowed for a great event for the Wounded Warrior couples who were able to attend the weekend.
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DrawDown Raffle: The Morrissey Family did an amazing job at this first time fundraiser event
held outside Cincinnati, OH. Attended by over 100 community members and Associates Dan and Dave, they raised over $5,000 in support of WWIA. There was live music, great food and a ton of fabulous prizes for people to bid on. Thanks to all who donated and attended!
Run then Wine Marathon: 20 September 2014, Las Cruces, NM. Sonja Gonzales and her crew managed a multitude of details in order to get this first time event off the ground. 600 runners participated in the event and the reception afterward at the Luna Rossa Winery and Pizzeria. Start training now - this is an annual event!
Southern Vermont Chapter:
27 Sept 2014.
Our VT Chapter hosted their second annul event in honor of WWIA with a dinner/ raffle/ auction attended by tons of supporters. They raised $26,179 - can you believe it??? What great support WWIA receives from the generous folks of Bennington, VT. Way to GO!
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Florida Alligator Hunt
29 Aug - 1 Sept
The 6th Annual WWIA Florida Gator Hunt finished as a roaring success. All five Purple Heart Heroes harvested
alligators with two over ten feet taken before sundown, just in time for bottomless frog legs and gator cakes at remote camp Bird Platt. Thank you to all our supporters that make this remarkable event happen and for welcoming our nation's true heroes. Congratulations Bill, Doug, John, and Chris on your impressive trophies. Thank you American Legion Riders Post 81, Brevard County Airboat Association, Operation Outdoor Freedom, and countless others who make this event world class for our Heroes.
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Upland NY Couples Retreat
5 - 7 Sept
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Couples Retreat Gang |
The 5th annual WWIA couples upland bird hunt retreat was held with three couples participating It was a great weekend of hunting, winery tasting, spa treatments, fabulous food and wonderful WWIA fellowship under the leadership of Associate Mary Lou Reisdorf. Special thanks to Patriot Guard Riders, Whispering Pines Hideaway, our tremendous team of dog handlers, The Palmyra Inn, The Corner Tavern and the Woodcliff Spa. The number of people to thank is endless, but we must call out a few - special thanks to John Nolander, Charlie & Carol Buisch and of course our wonderful hostesses Mary Lou Reisdorf and Christie Ingram. Our Heroes salute you all!
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Amazon Smile Program
Are you an Amazon Shopper? Are you interested in supporting WWIA just by shopping the way you always do? If so, you can sign up for the Amazon Smile program! Log into your regular Amazon account. Search for Amazon Smile, and then select Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation as your charity of choice. Then, start each shopping session at http://smile.amazon.com. and .5% of qualifying purchases will be donated to us - you don't spend any extra!
use this link to get started!
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