The Arena Campaign

As the wife of an Air Force Reservist, I have the unique perspective of both the civilian and the soldier: I see both the ones who fight for freedom and the ones who make home something worth fighting for.

This campaign is created for six particular families who are truly "in the arena", fighting for the freedom we all enjoy. The husbands/fathers of each family are Navy SEALs and helicopter pilots and diffusers of both bombs and cyber terrorism. Over the ten years that we have known them, the husbands have been away more than they have been home, and they have all sacrificed personal comfort and security so that we may enjoy it.  All the while, they poured into other military families - mine included - when they so often had little resources or capacity to give.

Here is my challenge: As a group of freedom-enjoyers, let’s offer these freedom-fighters some love, rest and support.

The goal is to send each of these six families The Care Package of All Care Packages as they are all entering a tough season. I know that with these families in particular, the effect will be multiplied because of their particular generosity and influence. Would you consider joining me in one (or all!) of the ways listed below?

1. Give a donation. Through this campaign, we hope to give $500 to each family to be used for rejuvenation (dates, a vacation, home repair, house cleaning, etc) during the crazy year ahead. Among these six families, there are deployments and newborn babies and even a move to a new country, all in the next few months.

Any money received over the $3,000 goal will be distributed equally among these six families with the instructions to give to other families in their unit as they see fit. (Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could send them enough to impact multiple families?!)

2. Send a gift or gift card. If you are a business owner or an artist/maker in particular: would you consider sending products from your business, showing these families that you have the freedom to pursue your dream because of the freedom these families fight for?

(As you think of gifts or gift cards to send, note that each family has a few young children. Note that they also all live in either Virginia Beach or San Diego.)

3. Send a card or letter. Let these families know what they mean to you and what you are able to accomplish because of what they have accomplished. If you send one copy, we can make copies to send to all six families.

4. Share this project - which I’ll call The Arena Campaign - with anyone you think may be interested in showing their support.

Any gifts or letters can be mailed to
Attn: Callie Murray
1807 Valparaiso Blvd
Niceville, FL 32578

I ask that everything be received by October 31, 2016, and I’ll be sure to send updates on what all we will be sending out. I will also send a list of all of the businesses who are able to show their support via gift and gift card donations.

Anyone who makes a donation will receive a printable image of the quote below designed by Fleecher Designs as a thank you.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” -Theodore Roosevelt