Calling all Military community supporters: we need your help! As tensions rise overseas, many Service Members are being Deployed right now. More Deployments mean more requests for adoptions, and our waitlist is growing by the day with Service Members who need support.

How Deployed Adoptions work

It has never been easier to join Soldiers’ Angels as a Virtual Angel and begin supporting Service Members and Veterans. If you’re ready to support a Service Member with monthly care packages and letters, all you have to do is register through our system here. You’ll be prompted to fill out your information and go through our ID verification. Our ID verification can be done one of two ways, a one-time donation of any amount (as little as $1), or an address screening done through Verified First. This verification is essential for us to record your angel status accurately.

Once verified, you’ll get a confirmation email with a link to Salesforce (our volunteer platform), where you’ll be prompted to create a password. Your registration will then go to someone on our Volunteer Support team, who will review and approve your status as an Angel. Once you have been approved, you will receive an Angel Welcome email that walks you through the steps of selecting your opportunities. Please Note: You will not see opportunities in your Salesforce dashboard until you have been approved!

Real stories of impact

In case you’re wondering if care packages really make an impact, we can say with certainty that yes, they really do. Over the years, we have heard from so many Service Members who have greatly benefitted from our Deployed Adoptions program. Here are just a few stories of care packages and the Angels behind them making a difference.

Gratitude from an undisclosed location

This year we received a heartwarming but bittersweet message of thanks from a unit that has faced the incredible loss of three Service Members in their unit after an attack. Following the attack, one of the Service Members on the base sent us a special request to help lift morale at the base. Of course, we responded immediately, sending dozens of care packages to the locations supplied. Here’s one of many thank yous we received.

“As I sit here in my makeshift tent, surrounded by the camaraderie of my fellow airmen, I am reminded of the incredible impact your letters and care packages have had on my spirit and that of the entire camp.

In this desolate and unpredictable environment, your words have been a beacon of light. Each letter, carefully folded and tucked into my pocket, has provided solace during the hard times. Your encouragement, your support—it has sustained me through the tough moments.

The care packages, too, have been a lifeline. The familiar snacks, the toiletries, the simple joy of a gift from home—they transport me back to a world beyond these dusty plains. Your thoughtfulness has not gone unnoticed, and I am grateful beyond measure.” – Chaplain L.

Read the full letter and story here.

A Veteran who is now paying it forward

Retired Army Veteran Michael was deployed four times as a cook in the Army and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each deployment, Michael would register for Soldiers’ Angels support and eventually started requesting items for his entire unit. That support meant so much to him he now pays it forward to fellow Veterans. As a 100% disabled Veteran, Michael spends his days in service to others through multiple volunteer support roles. He volunteers at our Dallas Military & Veteran Food Distribution every month, unloading the truck and organizing the pallets of food to help make the process more efficient.

“I know this was a long time ago. But in 2004 I received my first of many care packages from Soldiers’ Angels. I continued to receive them through my next four deployments, the last in 2011. Thank you for your support. I am now a Volunteer in Dallas, with Soldiers’ Angels at the VA serving coffee and donuts. Once a month I Volunteer at the Dallas Food Distribution Site. It is so wonderful to give back to those who gave so much. I am a proud retired Army veteran.” – Micheal, Army Veteran and once supported Service Member through Deployed Adoptions

Read his story here.

Having someone to lean on

PFC Houston’s story is a special one for us because he and his Angel have become close friends over the years. During his deployment not only did she send exactly what he needed when he needed it, they talked on the phone regularly.

“I feel very loved by getting letters and getting these cookies and then they added extra little things in these care packages. I don’t feel like I’m alone, I don’t feel like I’d be forgotten in the future just by the Angel that I have. So, I feel like your mission and your vision, you guys are holding up to that and so that’s really awesome. I want to end it there – your mission is perfect, your vision is perfect, because I feel in my heart that you guys do that and I’m very blessed to be on the receiving end of that. It’s really cool, the person that created Soldiers’ Angels, how they came up with that. It’s really awesome, because it really does help us. There’s not as many soldiers that are like me that like to voice their opinions or whatever, they’re more of silent partners or the silent receivers. Every one of us does appreciate getting those things and being able to have that extra support – they may not say it, but it does help us. After a long, hard day at work and we come back to the room and we can just see the box of cookies that we have or this letter from one of the Angels, it really shifts things quite a bit. It’s very awesome that you guys have a great thing going for you.”

They got to meet face to face virtually on Zoom during one of our Tribute to Our Heroes Video Interviews with him. Watch the interview here.

These stories are just the tip of the iceberg. Want to read more? Here’s a blog from our Angel’s perspective that shares stories of Service Members going above and beyond to thank the Angel who adopted them:

10 Times a Service Member Went Above and Beyond for Their Angel

Ready to Adopt a Service Member and send moral lifting support overseason? Start here.

An Easy Way to Support Deployed

Not ready to commit to monthly care packages? Help us with our Go Camo Care Package Collection. Go Camo helps Soldiers’ Angels collect the top-requested care package items and financial donations to help offset the cost of shipping the care packages. Supporting Go Camo is easy: send us care package supplies, order supplies from our Amazon wishlist, or send a donation to help cover the cost of shipping a care package ($25 per care package) from now through June 30. The purpose of the drive is to refill our warehouse with supplies so that we can support Deployed Service Members while they wait to be adopted. Learn more here.

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