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Earlier today, First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden launched “Joining Forces” from the South Lawn of the White House, a major initiative that builds on the Administration’s ongoing commitment to serving our nation’s military families.
“Joining Forces” will bring together non-profits, companies, schools, religious groups, and communities in a nationwide effort to support and engage military families and veterans through a variety of innovative partnerships.
As you may know, Mission Serve, ServiceNation’s civilian-military initiative, was launched on Veterans Day 2009 with the support of the First Lady and Dr. Biden. Now, we are honored and thrilled to have a role in their new effort. We are joining with our good friends Blue Star Families, the American Red Cross, Girls Scouts of America, Lions Clubs International, The Mission Continues, and many, many others in an initiative called Operation Honor Cards.
Operation Honor Cards aims to create an atmosphere of ‘shared service’ and a WWII sense of ‘all give some’ by encouraging Americans to perform service in honor of military families and veterans.
Operation Honor Cards will promote and collect virtual Honor Pledges of community service through the website at www.honorcards.org. The website will also maintain a running tally of hours of community service committed and fulfilled in honor of military families, service members and veterans.
We encourage individuals and organizations to join the program – you can fill out physical honor cards pledging service and download an online Operation Honor Cards kit to learn more.
Yours in service,
Ross Cohen
Director, Mission Serve
About ServiceNation: Mission Serve
Mission Serve is the ServiceNation coalition’s civilian-military initiative, connecting the civilian and military communities through a broad array of service and volunteer partnerships designed to address the challenges of our nation and our military communities.
On Veterans Day 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama, Dr. Jill Biden, and Mrs. Alma Powell joined us in Washington, DC as we officially launched our efforts at George Washington University, celebrating 36 civilian-military service partnerships, connecting organizations across the civilian-military worlds such as Habitat for Humanity and The American Legion, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Student Veterans of America, and many more.
In 2010, Mission Serve bolstered the civilian-military volunteerism infrastructure. We did this through an aggressive campaign that located military-supporting volunteer opportunities throughout the country and posted them online. Over the course of our campaign, we expanded the number of these opportunities from 463 to more than 2,200, an increase of 475% in just three months. These can be found online by entering your zip code into Serve.gov.
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- “President Obama, Vice President Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden Launch National “Joining Forces”Initiative to Support America’s Military Families” and related posts (whitehouse.gov)
- Community Colleges Serving Veterans (whitehouse.gov)
- First Lady Michelle Obama & Dr. Jill Biden to America’s Governors: Support Our Military Families (whitehouse.gov)
- Taking On A Cause Supports Joining Forces -An Organization Now Taking Action To Serve America’s Families, Initiated by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden (takingonacause.com)
- Supporting Our Veterans as They Start Their Own Businesses (blogs.constantcontact.com)
- Michelle Obama and Jill Biden Launch Join Forces Project for Our Soldiers (culturalhealth.blogspot.com)
Oklahoma State University Service-Learning Volunteer Center 