Operation Homefront & Operation Gratitude Join Forces for Pepsi Refresh Project

Online Contest Gives Supporters Chance to Vote on Recipients of Grants up to $300,000

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – It won’t cost a dime in October to help military service members and their families.  Thanks to Operation Homefront and Operation Gratitude, patriotic Americans can give real support with the click of a mouse.  By selecting the organizations’ joint grant proposal in the Pepsi Refresh Project, online voters can help the two military support groups win up to $300,000 for holiday programs supporting the men and women serving in harm’s way and their families back home.  

The two nonprofits are competing in two separate grant categories -- $250,000 and $50,000. Winners are determined solely by the final vote count. The top two charities in the running for $250,000 will win the grand prize. The top 10 charities competing for $50,000 will win that amount.

Voting on the joint proposal is open every day through the month of October. Supporters are encouraged to vote each of three different ways daily:  

1.  On the Operation Homefront/Operation Gratitude applications in the $250,000 and $50,000 categories at  http://www.RefreshEverything.com/MilitaryFamilySupport

2.  Through the Pepsi Refresh Facebook application

3.  By texting 103268 for the 250K grant and 103144 for the 50K grant to PEPSI (73774).  (Standard text messaging rates apply.)

Operation Homefront provides emergency assistance to military families and wounded warriors, and  Operation Gratitude sends care packages to deployed service members.  If successful in winning a grant, the two organizations will use the funds to send holiday care packages to troops deployed in Afghanistan,  give holiday toys to military children and provide food to wounded warriors and military families throughout the holiday season.

“We know we’re on the same page when it comes to our commitment to military families, but we also know the competition for this grant money is intense,” said Jim Knotts, CEO of Operation Homefront. “We really believe that by working together and pooling our supporters, we can win this.”

“This is what social networking truly is all about,” said Carolyn Blashek, president of Operation Gratitude. “We’re both nonprofits with limited finances and boots on the ground. We have to do more with less. Through this partnership, we now have more than we could ever muster on our own.”

About Operation Homefront

A national nonprofit, Operation Homefront leads more than 4,500 volunteers across 23 chapters and has met more than 267,000 needs since 2002.  A four-star rated charity by watchdog Charity Navigator, nationally, $.95 of total revenue donated to Operation Homefront goes to programs.  More information is available at www.OperationHomefront.net.

About Operation Gratitude

Operation Gratitude annually sends 100,000-plus care packages filled with snacks, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation addressed to individually named U.S. service members deployed in hostile regions. Our mission is to lift morale, bring a smile to a service member's face and express to our armed forces the appreciation and support of the American people. Each package contains donated product valued at $125 and costs the organization $15 to assemble and ship. Since its inception in 2003, Operation Gratitude volunteers have shipped more than 560,000 packages to American military deployed overseas.  For more information: www.OperationGratitude.com.