Wall Of Gratitude - Sports Challenge

On any given night you can turn on your TV and during a pre game ceremony for any sporting event find a "Tribute To Our Troops" or "Military Appreciation Night".  Anyone who knows me off the Thank A Soldier page knows I am one of the biggest NHL fans you will ever meet and I've had the pleasure in attending a few of the Military appreciation nights.  Several teams send out a notice to season ticket holders and ask if for one game they would give up their seats to a military family and they have been very successful.

One of the most successful of these have always been in Edmonton, Alberta which is home to CFB (Canadian Forces Base) Edmonton and there games when they host military appreciation night the stands are always filled with Camo.

The Boston Bruins are another NHL Team that has always been huge in the troops support department hosting a surprise homecoming for a military family and also did something very special for a family of a fallen Canadian soldier.  The Toronto Maple Leafs have done morale visits to our troops in Afghanistan and have also hosted several Military Appreciation night.  Also during every game defenceman Luke Schenn gives tickets to military families and during the 3rd period they are given a shout out on the big screen in a segment called Lukes Troops.

As far as the NFL goes I have seen many shout outs to our troops during live broadcasts and they will always show a camera live from IRAQ or Afghanistan with our troops watching the games.  The same can be said about the MLB.  As for the NBA I`m sorry but I haven`t watched many games and would love some feedback on this blog as to what they  may have done for our soldiers.  I do know that Bonnie-Jill Laflin (the only female scout in the NBA) for the L.A Lakers has done numerous morale visits to troops serving in IRAQ and Afghanistan and also has her own charity for soldiers called Hounds & Heroes.

That being said..............

We as you may or may not know are soon launching `The Wall Of Gratitude` and I wanted to give fans of all these sports a chance to message their favorite sports teams and see if they would like to be involved.  Our soldiers are huge fans of these sports and imagine how much it would mean to them to see their favorite player or someone from their home team holding a `Welcome Home`or ``Thank You`` sign.

Here`s what you do:

Twitter:
1. Find the list of teams of your favorite sport on twitter

List of NHL teams on Twitter
List of NFL teams on Twitter
List of NBA teams on Twitter
List of MLB teams on Twitter

2. Find your favorite team(s) in this list and tweet them the following

e.g.  Hey @MapleLeafs which one of your players will submit a photo for the Wall Of Gratitude? http://bit.ly/WallOfGratSports  #WallOfGrat

3. If you don`t use twitter you can search for your fav team on Facebook and simply copy and paste it on their fan pages.  (NOTE Im not asking anyone to spam these groups it is simply one or two messages to your favorite teams from these various leagues)

You can also tweet it to @NHL @NBA @NFL & @MLB or any of your favorite teams from other sports too but I figure for now I would keep it to these major four sports.  YOU can also send in a photo wearing your favorite sports teams jersey to WALLOFGRATUDE`s email address

This is just an idea I have to help get the word about the Wall Of Gratitude Out there and if you have any other suggestions please feel free to leave a comment on the blog here.  All it takes is one person or organization with a lot of followers to RT this for it to take off and think of how much it will mean to all our men and women serving

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THE WALL OF GRATITUDE