Becky can be found blogging at Nickels-n-Dimes, where she shares deals, tips and tricks for stretching your dollars and saving your nickels and dimes while creating a stockpile for your family’s needs.

I want to share with you a story of a soldier and his family’s amazing journey through unimaginable grief to bring hope to those serving for our freedom on foreign soil.

Matt Maupin was a 20-year-old Army soldier from Batavia, OH (just outside of Cincinnati), that has now given a face to our military personnel serving and to all those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

His story begins on April 9th, 2004 when his convoy came under attack. He was missing for one week before we and the rest of the world were able to see him on the television surrounded by his captures. His fate was left a question for four (4) long years until the day an Iraqi citizen brought a tip that led to Matt’s discovery. In March 2008, the bittersweet news came. Matt was finally coming home, sadly to be laid to rest and given the honor he so deserved.

As I was preparing to tell you about Matt and his family, I was left without words.

What do you say that could possibly honor a soldier that paid the ultimate sacrifice for my freedom, your freedom? How do you show the emotion, the heartache and this family’s ability to rise above it all (while still awaiting news of their loved one) to help our soldiers still overseas?

Matt’s family and community came together. His face is the face of so many soldiers that preceded him and all those that have and will follow him. His face is a reminder of so many still in harms way each and every day. His family refused to allow their son’s death to be in vane and made this an opportunity to support so many that has given so much.

The Yellow Ribbon Support Center has one mission – to help raise the moral of the troops serving overseas. They send items including (but not limited to) personal care items, candy, books, batteries, phone cards, non-perishable foods, powdered drinks, etc. As of the time of the following video, they had sent out over 6,500 packages to our troops! 100% of every donation received goes directly to the troops.

The following video was prepared by students in the Cincinnati / NKY area to help drive donations. It’s says it all perfectly, and beautifully.

You will notice a young Marine in the video getting out of the plane.
He is Matt’s brother, Micah. He stayed by Matt’s side for his final trip home.
Micah has recently reenlisted and is still active in Egypt.

Thanks to Matt’s father, Keith Maupin, I will be giving away a couple Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial CDs by Bootsie Collins, Charlie Daniels and many other great artists. This CD is in support of the Fallen Heroes Foundation and for a new veteran’s museum in Clermont County, Cincinnati, OH. For more information, visit Nickels-n-Dimes

To donate $1 to The Yellow Ribbon Support Center to offer support to our troops, use the PayPal button below. Please put “One Dollar Give” in the memo section of the donation form. After you’ve donated, come back and vote in the poll so that we can count donations!

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(Yes, the poll offers you the choice between “Yes.” and “Yes.” because I didn’t think we really needed to count the “No” answers, and the poll required two choices! Hey, it’s not a perfect system, but it’ll work!)