Adam Cole is a Marine Corps Veteran of 18 years. He holds a BA in History from UNC Wilmington. He aspires to become a novelist and was a member of the 2018 CASY Writing Internship. All images for this article were generously supplied by Adam Cole.
As a non-profit, one of our funding partners is the Call of Duty Endowment which is organized by Activision Blizzard. For those of you who do not know, they are one of the largest gaming producers and the most successful stand-alone interactive entertainment company in the world. I am sure that you are familiar with some of their top-tiered games… you know, like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and even Candy Crush. Every year Activision Blizzard hosts an in-store donation program at their GameStop stores, nationally. Yes, they own GameStop! This donation program helps them raise funding to continue their support of CASY as well as other veteran programs.
The Mission: GameStop4Vets
We need your help! GameStop has asked vets who have received support and assistance through CASY to participate in the “Thank You GameStop” campaign throughout the month of July. The premise is simple - all we need you to do is to capture a photo inside a local GameStop store with a store associate, saying ‘thank you’ for helping get veterans back to work Just snap a cell phone photo of yourself “in the act of thanks” and post it to either your Facebook or Twitter account. Don’t forget to include “#GameStop4Vets” in the text.
“Every cent of those funds (and all other funds that we raise) goes directly to supporting veteran service organizations who are vetted and proven to assist the community.”
GameStop has provided a "Letter of Authorization" that will inform GameStop employees that this is an official GameStop program. Here is the awesome part - for participating, Activision Blizzard will provide each veteran with a FREE copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4!!! This is the latest game that is coming out in October and you could have a free copy hot off the presses!
Joining the Mission: An Interactive Way to Give Back to the Veteran Community