Charitable Gift Giving

Happy Memorial Day!

As you’re enjoying your weekend of barbeques and fireworks and the start of summer, remember to take a few moments to reflect on what made the day necessary.

The commemoration of Memorial Day (then known as Declaration Day) started in 1866 in Waterloo, New York, to remember the Union soldiers who had fallen in the civil war. The name “Memorial Day” became common after World War II, and in 1968 it was moved to Monday and declared a federal holiday.

Is it proper to have fun and to celebrate on Memorial Day? Of course it is–this is precisely what our armed forces fight for. While countries around the world are ravaged by dictatorships and corrupt  governments and oppression and terror, we can enjoy freedom given to us by God and protected by the brave men and women who fight those who would take it away from us.

So this Memorial Day, enjoy the freedom, but remember to give a little back. Click on the banner above to give a donation to the USO, a non-profit organization that’s funded entirely by people like you and me (while they were founded by an act of Congress, contrary to popular opinion, they get zero funding from the government or the military), which supports our troops by providing “morale, welfare and recreation-type services to our men and women in uniform” and “representing the American people by extending a touch of home to the military.”

 In thanks for your contribution, the USO will send you a 3′ x 5′ American Flag, which you can display proudly or give to a young person in your life to remind them that freedom isn’t free.