Fort Campbell, Ky (November 20, 2020) – Connected Nation and Digital Works have always been focused on being part of every community they join. Since the facility at the Fort Campbell location became active last December, the team has spent a great deal of time working within the area, helping other organizations when they can. This Veterans Day, the Fort Campbell Digital Works team wanted to do even more.
“It was an easy decision, to focus our energy on helping our local veterans,” said Jessica Golson, program facilitator for Fort Campbell says. “The question wasn’t who we wanted to reach out to, it was how. After a few brainstorm sessions, we thought it would be really fun and helpful to collect turkeys for veterans in the area.”
Tammy Spring, Chantel Cooke, and Jessica Golson
On Nov. 9, the Fort Campbell team and Digital Works Director Tammy Spring sat outside the facility and did just that. The team collected turkeys, donations, cards, and more. Not only did they reach their goal of 38 turkeys — they exceeded it! At the end of the day, there were 44 turkeys to deliver, a mission the team was excited to execute!
“There really is nothing like it,” Golson said of distributing the turkeys to local veterans. “We had a few individual veterans to drop off to here and there, but the big impact was definitely the 25 turkeys delivered to the Pennyroyal Veterans Center. It is a homeless shelter for Kentucky veterans, and we were able to bring by enough turkeys for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. We were also fortunate enough to meet some of the proud veterans who live there. The center is a testament to the love and support Christian County has for its veteran population, and we are very honored to be a part of that community.”
Donations were collected from all over the area. Some individuals dropped off turkeys, many others donated through a link set up on the digitalworksjobs.org website. This allowed donors to purchase Kroger cards to be used to buy turkeys for veterans in need. Once the slew of turkeys was distributed, there were leftover donations, which the Digital Works team used to deliver yet another set of groceries to the Veteran Center.
“What is a holiday meal without all the fixings? We thought it would be an extra special treat to add in mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, stuffing, and the like and drop those off as well,” Golson said. “Our community really pulled through for these veterans, and we did not want to disappoint. Enough sides were dropped off to accompany the turkeys this season and feed our nation’s heroes who deserve so much more than we can give.”
She went on to thank the Christian County Chamber for their incredible support in this event. “The Military Affairs team of the Christian County Chamber of Commerce really went to work for us. Mona and her group helped us find veterans in need, veterans to honor, and truly supported our endeavors from the start. We could not have done this without them, that’s for sure. Thank you!”
This was the first of hopefully many Veterans Day Turkey Drives, and Connected Nation and Digital Works could not be more pleased with the results.
“We want to say thank you to every single person and group who reached out to help us with this mission and meeting our goals. Because of this amazing community, we were able to make a bit of a difference. Now to start planning next year’s turkey drive! Hope we will see you all there!”