Being a small family foundation, we still generally know the individuals who send in donations. When we receive a notification from PayPal that a donation has been made from someone we don’t know (which we hope will continue to happen as our foundation grows), we typically like to follow up with a personal note of gratitude and curiosity for how they found out about us.

Just recently, we noticed a name who had made several generous donations to W4V since last year. When Doreen inquired as to how they found out about us, we were blown away by the response, which received permission to share with you all:

“Hi Doreen! Actually, my husband and I are in our early 60’s and are retired. Our way of celebrating the holidays with our 3 children is that every year, we ask them to select any charity they would like to donate to and in lieu of gifts, which they actually don’t need, we will donate the money we normally would spend on them, on their charity.

It is so wonderful to see the various charities they select–sometimes different every year, sometimes the same one–military organizations, domestic abuse shelters, animal humane societies, children’s cancer organizations, organizations to help out the families of fallen police officers in Los Angeles,…..these are just some of their choices.

Wings for Val is a favorite of our son and his girlfriend (of 7 years) who are both Naval Aviators. They both attended the Naval Academy, he graduating in 2012 and she in 2013, and now he is stationed in San Diego as a COD pilot, and she is in Anacortes, Washington learning how to fly the Growler. He will deploy to the Middle East in June and we are not sure where she will end up going. For the last 2 years they have selected Wings for Val as their charity.

I am not sure if Rebecca knew Val or not, but being a female Naval Aviator, she definitely feels an affinity for the cause.

Thanks so much for the email. It is so nice to know the monies are appreciated and will be used for a noble cause rather than for useless gifts that would probably be re-gifted or tucked away in some drawer 🙂

Hoping you have a wonderful holiday season! I will forward your email to my son and his girlfriend so they can also answer your query.

All our best,

Pete and Carol, from Wyoming”

Our family was completed amazed by this story, by the connections within the aviation community, and by the unique generosity of this family in lieu of Christmas gifts. Hearing these kinds of stories behind the donations help motivate us to continue working towards our mission, and we hope they inspire you to continue finding ways to give back to organizations that mean something to you and to your community. ‘Tis the season, and we are so grateful!!

What are your stories for why you donate to W4V? Feel free to share them in the comments below or email pat@wingsforval.org. Merry Christmas and God Bless!