Inland Mopars Car Club is asking for your help in bringing some Holiday happiness for approximately 1500 soldier's kids at Fort Irwin, CA. Please visit our 2019 GoFundMe fundraiser at:
Click here to support Holiday Toys for Soldiers Kids organized by Ken Hamer
100% of the funds will go to purchase Holiday toys.
Just a $1 donation from 1/3 of the FABO membership will meet our Toy Fund goal!
Extreme Automotive was a well-known builder of some of the finest hot rods and customs located in Southern California. The owners spearheaded a Holiday toy drive for a number of years, but never knew for sure exactly where the toys were being delivered to. Seven years ago, they decided to focus their efforts on the 1500 soldiers’ kids at Fort Irwin. Through their expansive network of contacts and their annual Holiday pot-luck party for about 250-300 of their fellow car-culture friends, they were able to accumulate enough toys to fill their 24-foot enclosed car hauler. Every year on the day after the party, they personally delivered the toys to Ft. Irwin.
Our car club, Inland Mopars, became involved in this effort five years ago by donating and gathering new toys for these kids.
In 2017 the owners of Extreme Automotive informed us of their intention to retire and relocate to Texas where their toy drive efforts will now be focused on the military kids at Fort Hood. Not wanting to abandon the kids at Fort Irwin, they asked if Inland Mopars would continue the toy drive efforts and, of course, we couldn’t say no.
We are a relatively small club with approximately 30 families and do not have either the contacts or the capacity to host a Holiday toy drive party to the magnitude that previously resulted in the accumulation of enough toys for the approximately 1500 deserving kids at Fort Irwin. We need your help.
If you know someone in the military, then you know that their monthly earnings don’t leave much beyond trying to just provide the basics for a young family. Without our efforts there are many kids who won’t have toys for the Holidays.
Fort Irwin, located in the middle of the Mojave desert in Southern California, covers approximately 1000 square miles and is an ideal site for the Army’s premier National Training Center for the global war on terrorism. The base’s primary mission is to provide realistic joint and combined arms training concentrated on developing soldiers, leaders and various units of America’s Army to ensure each soldier has the best training to bring them home safely from overseas deployments. This is accomplished by pitting military units about to be deployed against the harsh environment and a determined and menacing opposing force (OPFOR) under conditions similar to those encountered while on deployment. The intense training provided at Fort Irwin helps ensure the safe return of our warriors from overseas deployments.
The kids of the OPFOR soldiers are without their dads or moms for three continuous weeks out of every four weeks while their parent is out in the desert providing specialized training. This goes on all year around for the two-year cycle their parent is stationed at Fort Irwin.
Thank you for helping to bring a little joy to these families during the Holidays.
