Mr. Shannon Hogan sent a message to Rodney McMullen Chief Executive Officer of The Kroger Co. email address that said:
Hello,
I am writing to you because I was researching the various grant opportunities for military veteran organizations and I happened upon this one. First, allow me to state a sincere thank you for what you do for those organizations, who like ours seeks to serve my brothers and sisters who have answered the call to service. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find support that seeks to assist those who cater to the military and veteran community, so your efforts are deeply appreciated.
Our organization is one that began in August 2017 with its sole purpose and mission to provide relief of veterans, and active duty military who wish to participate in ice hockey but cannot afford the costs of equipment, or registration fees. What we seek to achieve is funding an entire team that will represent our organization in the local hockey community and participate in charity events and charity hockey games to help raise money for our cause and the causes that we associate with. In all, we are seeking funding that will establish our organization by allowing us to initially place this team and purchase all of the equipment, pay all registration fees and costs such as this and funds to purchase a vehicle that will allow us to transport disabled veterans and equipment.
As you know, Cincinnati is not known for being a large commercial hockey market. That said, there is a substantial number of players, supporters and fans, due in large part to our hometown hockey team, the Cincinnati Cyclones. The next largest market in our area would be for the Columbus Blue Jackets, which is not very far away, but out of our immediate market area.
As the Director and Founder of this organization, I invite you to discover what funding would do for our organization. All donations go directly to funding the organizations mission of purchasing equipment, fees and operating costs so that disabled military members are not burdened by these. We are not seeking a handout, as we intend to utilize every penny of funds we receive towards making this organization into a first class representative of you. Our longer term goals are to acquire land and fund the building of an ice arena in our immediate area, thus providing us a permanent facility and to also open up the ice to our high school programs in the area that have been affected by a lack of ice rinks due to the Gardens being closed demolished.
With this new facility, we will introduce a new youth hockey program that will be free of charge for our disabled veterans and their families to learn and play ice hockey. We intend to expand this program as it grows to allow high school aged players to participate and benefit from our program, whereas they may or may not have such an opportunity to do so. We can only do this if we receive support from organizations such as yours. Therefore, it is my sincere hope that you will not only consider us for funding, but will be gracious in finding our mission and cause worthy of your support and continued support.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions at this email address, by our website at cincyveteranshockeyclub.weebly.com or by phone: (513) 685-3645. I will be happy to provide you all the information you may need.
Additionally, I have not disclosed a specific amount being requested as I would like for you to consider the amount and how it will impact our organization. While I understand that there are a great many organizations also seeking assistance, we ask that you consider the immediate impact that our organization will have and the sustained impact on those who have paid a great cost for their volunteer service to this nation.
I could not ask for a better partner in our cause than our own area Kroger and I could not imagine a better opportunity for Kroger than to help build our organization, providing its expertise and insights and involvement in serving a truly underserved market.
