Gift Cards for Coast Guard During Government Shutdown

Friends and family,

As you (hopefully) know, during this government shutdown, my brothers and sisters in arms in the United States Coast Guard are continuing to work to defend this country without pay. They are going to work every day, trying to focus on life-and-death decisions while dealing with the uncertainty of how to pay their bills and support their families while this shutdown continues with no end in sight.

While the USCG are far from the only members of our government struggling to make ends meet, they are the only ones I have a viable means to assist. So I want to help them. I need to help them. WE need to help them.

My contact in the Coast Guard has told me that we are legally allowed to donate gift cards valued at $25 or less (Visa/MasterCard gift cards not allowed). I am starting this campaign to ask your help in raising funds to purchase these cards.

Minus this site's processing fee, 100% of your donation will go toward a mix of base exchange, gas, and Target/Wal*Mart gift cards, which I will provide to my Coast Guard counterpart to be distributed to coast guardsmen in need.

As reassurance that these donations will not go to waste in the event the shutdown ends, the Coast Guard Spouse's Association is ensuring any nondistributed cards and funds will go to the Armed Services YMCA Food Pantries.

As there are a lot of scammers trying to take advantage of well-meaning people during this shutdown, I am keeping this fundraiser private to reassure donors that this is a legitimate plea for help. I am sharing this with you, my family and friends, in the hopes that you will share it with as many people as you can.

I will provide regular documentation of every card purchase and handoff of those cards to my Coast Guard counterparts so there is zero concern I am keeping any of these funds for myself. If you are more comfortable mailing a gift card directly to the coast guard base, please contact me via this page and I can provide you the mailing address after verifying your identity with the person who referred you.

Thank you very much for your consideration of this cause. These are the men and women charged with protecting our nation's maritime borders. They are the frequently underappreciated heroes of the United States military. We owe them a debt we can never repay. This is our chance to at least offset that balance.