Tickets for the Troops

Last week we were proud to announce the 2^nd year of our “Tickets for the Troops” program, which provides two free tickets to each of the 81 Washington Nationals home games this year to active military personnel and their families. Throughout the entire 2011 MLB season, military families can obtain the free tickets through the USO of Metropolitan Washington’s free ticket program, TicketLine.

It has been great to work with HP, AMD, the USO of Metropolitan Washington, and WFED Radio (Federal News Radio) to make this program possible, and last week I was able to attend a game and meet some of our troops who took advantage of the ticket program.

I met Julian Johnson, who recently celebrated his 18^th birthday and is overwhelmingly excited about having just joined the U.S. Army. I also met 23-year-old Michael Keicy of the U.S. Marines who just recently returned from serving a tour in Afghanistan. (Here’s a shot of us enjoying the game, with Kevin Brook from AMD, Michael, myself and Julian from left to right)

Both Julian and Michael serve at Fort Myer in the D.C. area, but we’re hoping to spread the word so that any military families in the D.C. area learn about the program. Last summer, we had a soldier from the Midwest who was recovering from a broken leg at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C., but was able to take some time away from his recovery process while his family was in town and use our free tickets to take them to a Nationals game.

Given the news of Osama Bin Laden’s capture and death this week, this program comes at a time where we are especially cognizant of the great work that our troops do every day to fight for our rights, and I’m proud to be a part of any effort, big or small, to show our tremendous gratitude. In the wake of this news, the Nationals announced that free tickets would be given away to all military personnel for this Monday’s game vs. the Giants, so I’m excited that we’ll be able to continue that recognition of our troops in a small way for the remainder of the season.

If you are interested in supporting our troops as a part of this program, you can donate any extra tickets to military members by calling the TicketLine, and they will be made available immediately to active military personnel.

For more information on the TicketLine program please visit www.usometro.org.