April 2025 Newsletter
Easter Blessing from You to our Troops
The power of prayer, it heals, it uplifts, and it offers hope. Take a moment from your hectic life to offer up a prayer for our troops this Easter season. While we gather in church pews, our troops huddle in tents and mess halls stoically enduring yet another holiday away from home. Our troops deserve our love, support and prayers and you can be that partner in hope they deserve.
Our deployed soldiers accept family separations as part of their service and often used to spending holidays away from loved ones but let’s make sure they know we are thinking about them and sending our love and prayers today.
You have the power to make a powerful difference in the lives of our troops. It's never too late to show your support. We have a big stack of care packages just waiting for sponsorship so we can send them off to our troops. Thank you to all our wonderful supporters who have sent their love across the miles. However, we could use a couple more helping hands if yours might be available to spread our message of support. Don't forget, every care package comes with the ability for you to include your own personalized message of support. From our family to yours, have a safe and blessed Easter!
Easter falls on Sunday, April 20 this year, so there is still time to reach out to our troops to show your support and thank them for a job well done. Nothing lifts a lonely soldier’s spirits like a letter from home. When you help sponsor an Easter package through our Care Package Program, your personal support message is one of the most cherished and remembered care package items they receive.
Peeps for Troops
Troopathon proudly offers squishy, nostalgic marshmallow Peeps for a limited time only. It's Easter season; therefore, our special Easter Troop Care Packages include iconic Peeps! It’s easy for those of us back in the comfort of our homes to take our blessings for granted, with the bustle of Easter activity.
Easter egg hunts, family gatherings, a home cooked meal with all the trimmings, church services and baskets full of goodies. Oh, my goodness, aren’t we all blessed?
One little blessing we at Troopathon love is making sure our seasonal Easter packages for our troops contain cheery Peeps to help bring just a small bit of Easter to our deployed troops.
In addition to our seasonal Peeps, we include items soldiers crave and request. Premium gourmet coffee, beef jerky, cookies, Gatorade, lip balm, hand and face wipes, deodorant, GU Energy products and more! Our troops love sharing that is why our care packages arrive brimming with treats and necessities for sharing.
Best of all, personal notes from you to remind our troops that home isn’t that far away after all. Why not assist our industrious bunny this year and help spread Easter cheer!
Bayside Covenant Church of Galt Comes Through
Bayside Rockers come through in rock solid fashion
The Rockers, a senior group from the Bayside Covenant Church of Galt, recently came in for one of their many volunteer stints. We have been fortunate to have Bayside Covenant Church of Galt working with us for over six years as part of their community support outreach. Dan Lane, a Bayside volunteer program coordinator helps spearhead the operation with Bayside. Dan is a USMC veteran that served during the late 60’s and early 70’s and deployed to Vietnam as a military policeman. Dan knows first-hand what it is like to deploy and what it feels like to receive a care package from home. “I was the recipient of a care package, and it was like seventh heaven!” exclaimed Dan. When I found out what Troopathon does I was all in.” Dan continued, “I remember vividly how I felt when I got a care package from home. “Immediately I felt like I was back home, it sure was a wonderful feeling. I want to see that we express that to as many people as possible and of course, I was a hit among all my guys,” chuckled Dan. “Everybody I’ve ever met; they share that box instantly with everyone around us.” Dan went on to state one of the things he most appreciates with Troopathon, is that when they have been able to provided military mailing addresses for their own deployed family members among the Bayside community, Troopathon has made sure that enough care packages went out to that troop to share with others in their unit.
Thanks to Bayside we can also include spiritual support as part of their outreach. Bayside likes to have each of their care packages to include a pocket bible which the donor provides and other thoughtful items from a list provided to them by Troopathon to help lift our troops in spirit as well as body. When I asked Dan if they had heard back from any of the troops they have sent packages to, Dan replied “Yes, I have personally heard back from four, and that is just really rewarding because you know these guys are committed , not only by their service, but by their time. Their time is taken up. So, for them to sit down and write a thank you means so much. We’ve never met. We’ve never sat down face to face, but we’ve connected on a level that was meaningful for both of us.”
Dan was quick to point out, however, “The idea of supporting those who are serving our country, we’re not doing it for the thanks. We’re doing it to let them know we care. If they have time to send a little note, that is just like frosting on the cake.”
Bayside Galt also comes in to volunteer and helps us pack and prep our care packages for shipping, or whatever we need to have them assist us with. Dan loves working with Troopathon, “My heart is in service to veterans in particular so I coordinate Veterans Day events for our church, and I get incredibly involved in that. About seven years ago we were looking for a place we could alongside and serve our veterans or active-duty military and that is when I got introduced to Scott (Scott Raab, our Outreach Director) and we started participating with you,” said Dan.
“Through this effort we’ve got people involved who are not connected to military veterans, who have never served themselves, but they jump on board. Now it’s exciting for them this feeling of helping in a way that they just didn’t know they could do. I just encourage every civic group and church group to get involved in such a rewarding program,” concluded Dan.
Estate Planning & Tax Efficient Giving Made Simple
Estate planning and Charitable Giving Made Easy
Troopathon supporters are the best! Pat yourself on the back because you are patriotic, generous, and dedicated to looking after the welfare of our troops. As a supporter of our mission to uplift and honor our brave troops, we want to express our heartfelt thanks for your unwavering dedication.
Your generosity makes a measurable difference in the lives of those who sacrifice so much for our freedom. At Troopathon, we believe in not only showing our troops they're in our hearts but also in making smart financial decisions that benefit both you and our military heroes. That's why we're excited to introduce you to an opportunity to maximize your support while also increasing your savings.
Our ongoing partnership with FreeWill.com, the leading online site to create or update your will and estate planning offers you a unique and straightforward way to manage your estate planning needs. Our partnership offers Troopathon supporters a valuable opportunity to both secure your legacy and extend a helping hand to our brave service members, completely free of charge!
FreeWill provides a secure online platform that streamlines the process of estate planning, guiding you through creating or updating your will in just 20 minutes, with no cost to you. Just as our deployed troops make sacrifices to defend our freedoms, it's crucial that you provide the necessary resources to safeguard all that matters most to you.
Together, let us reaffirm our gratitude for the service our troops selflessly dedicate to our nation by first securing a plan to support ourselves, our families, and the causes dear to our hearts.
If you need to reduce your taxable income, a Qualified Charitable Donation (QCD) for our friends who are 70.5 or older. For those of you older than seventy-three and facing a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from your IRA, a charitable gift donation is a simple and easy way to receive the best tax benefit for you. Try our secure IRA donation tool to make it easier than ever to give from your IRA. It only takes minutes to complete it and will auto complete your paperwork for you.
Into cryptocurrency? We now accept donations of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies! This gives us one more way to fund our work and can provide you with extra tax benefits.
We even make it easy to give from your Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs). DAFs are investment accounts created with the sole purpose of supporting charitable organizations like Troopathon. If you have a DAF, you can use this secure DAF-giving tool to make your impact today.
Tax receipts for 2024 were emailed on January 10th, and again on April 1, 2025 but if you missed yours, don’t worry, you can reach out to us by calling in or emailing us at info@troopathon.org and we will be happy to resend your receipt. Don’t miss out if you are eligible for a charitable deduction on your tax return.
Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to Scott Raab at sraab@moveamericaforward.org or (916) 441-6197.
April Photo of the Month — “We are Truly Grateful”
“Receiving a care package is more than just getting supplies—it’s a powerful reminder that we’re not alone. Each package brings a piece of home, lifting spirits and providing comfort during long days away from family and friends. Whether it’s a favorite snack, a heartfelt letter, or simple essentials, every item carries the support and appreciation of those back home. It’s these small but meaningful gestures that keep morale high and remind us why we serve. Your kindness makes a difference, and we are truly grateful for it!”