Operation Reconnect

Veterans and their families make sacrifices every single day so that those of us here at home can enjoy our freedom.

 

When a soldier returns home from a deployment, it can take time for them to acclimate to civilian life and reconnect with their families.

 

Operation ReConnect wants to make that transition easy, and provide veterans with the time they need to heal and reconnect with their families after deployment.

 

Your donation to Operation ReConnect will help us send veterans and their families on the trip of a lifetime to the Gulf Coast. We currenly provide accommodations, limited meals and activities at NO COST to our families.

 

The 30 families who received trips in 2015 told us, “This is what every military family needs. We didn't realize how much we needed this.”

 

It is our goal to raise $100,000 to continue supporting service-members and their families. Reaching this goal will create a pathway forward, provide proper resources, and ensure that we can touch the lives of more than 500 service members in 2016.

 

With a donation of any size, YOU can make a difference in the lives of those who are willing to protect the freedoms we all enjoy. Donate now!

 

 

Read our story for more …

 

I’m Ryan Charrier, the founder and president of Operation ReConnect. I currently serve in the U.S. Air Force Reserves and have served in the United States military for over 4 years. During a deployment to Afghanistan, I was talking with a fellow service-member about the things we missed back home. He told me he’d never had an opportunity to take his family on a true vacation. They’d been on trips for weddings, funerals and visiting family, but they still lacked the quality time they needed together. Knowing that this man had selflessly served his country for more than 28 years and six combat deployments, I was left speechless. Quite frankly, I felt personally responsible. I knew that someone needed fix the disconnect that military families experience due to the sacrifices of military life, and particularly post-deployment. Right then and there, from my base in Afghanistan, I made all necessary arrangements for this Veteran and his family to enjoy a complimentary trip to the Gulf Coast. And Operation ReConnect was born.

 

In early 2015, I resigned from my civilian employment in the mechanical engineering field and relocated my family over 1,000 miles to pursue my new dream of providing the much needed gift of TIME to our returning combat veterans and their families.

 

In the short 5-month operating period during 2015, Operation ReConnect, along with our community partners, were able to provide ReConnect Trips to more than 30 combat veterans and their families. In addition, our Organization is not only founded by veterans, it is operated by veterans. This simple principle assures that our administrative expenses become a function of employing a veteran or their direct family member.

 

Our objective is simple. While we maintain a list of coastal properties along the beaches of coastal Alabama and northwest Florida, we need additional funds to provide veterans and their families with a 100% free vacation. It is our goal to raise $100,000 to continue supporting service-members and their families.

 

Reaching this goal will create a pathway forward, provide the proper resources, and ensure that we can touch the lives of more than 500 service members in 2016.

~Ryan Charrier, Founder/President