On Saturday, Miami Dolphins alumni Oronde Gadsden, Lorenzo Hampton and Twan Russell teamed up with Bank of America community volunteers for the fifth-annual military care packaging event held at Sun Life Stadium.
The event was second of multiple events the Miami Dolphins and Bank of America are partnering on during the month of November to give back to the military and veterans for their service. Last Wednesday, former Dolphins Mark Duper and Lousaka Polite along with Bank of America volunteers participated in a Miami-Dade Rebuilding Together project at the home of U.S. Navy veteran Terrance Williams in the Richmond Heights neighborhood in Miami-Dade County.
“Our military men and women make sacrifices every day to serve our country, and being deployed is undeniably tough,” Bank of America Miami Market President Gene Schaefer said. “It is through events like this that our community and Bank of America employee volunteers can unite to express our thanks and support our military who are away from home.”
Both the Dolphins and Bank of America have reached out to more than 4,000 service members each year with a goal to collect enough items to package and distribute 1,000 care packages. Each care package is a customized at the request of the service member and it contains items to in attempts to help each member being in a different country. The volunteers also wrote supportive messages that were included in every package.
“Today we are serving our troops, supporting the men and women that support us,” Russell said. “When a military member receives it the packages we put together with personal items, they’re receiving it knowing that someone put some time and love into making that box. We wouldn’t be able to do this without the help from Bank of America and our Special Teams Driven by Chevy volunteers that allow us to be supportive community partners.”
During the Dolphins Nov.22 game against the Dallas Cowboys, Bank of America will sponsor the Salute to Service game at Sun Life Stadium. As part of the partnership, Bank of America will give more than 60,000 rollabannas that say Go Dolphins and the hashtag #TroopThanks to attendees as part of the bank’s campaign to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.
The Bank of America hopes to donate anywhere from $1, up to $1 million, to Wounded Warrior Project for every social media post military service members using the hashtag #TroopThanks through a message, photo or video on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Wounded Warrior Project is a military and veterans charity service organization that empowers injured veterans and their families.
