HARRISBURG, Pa. —Ted Majewski was waiting in line to purchase what he described as a "fist full of phone cards" for his son, Jeff, who is currently serving in the Marine Corps.
As he pulled out his wallet, he thought not only about his son, but also of all the brave servicemembers serving our country.
Wondering what he could do to support them, he found the answer right in front of him.
Majewski, senior vice president of personal lines at Harleysville Insurance, rallied his coworkers and, while researching various troop-support programs, stumbled upon VFW Operation Uplink™. He and his Harrisburg Harleysville Insurance team decided sponsoring a "Free Call Day," was exactly what they wanted.
To ensure enough funds would be raised to support the Thanksgiving Day "Free Call Day," the company enacted the "2 for the Troops," incentive program. With this, Harleysville pledged that $2 of every automobile and homeowner's policy sold by their independent insurance agents would be donated to Operation Uplink.
The donation to VFW’s key military support program wasn’t the first one for the Pennsylvania insurance company: In 2007, agents raised $48,000 for Operation Uplink. See related story.
"I didn't want to market this. It wasn't a publicity thing at all,” said Majewski. “I just felt really good about it."
By Thanksgiving, Harleysville had raised more than $50,000 for the event, making them the sole sponsor.
"We were all excited to have the opportunity to exclusively sponsor this event on such a special day. If anybody out there wants to know if this program is worthwhile, have them call me, and I'd be glad to talk to them about it," said Majewski.
The excitement at Harleysville extends beyond the "Free Call Day." Because of their efforts, service members deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait made a record 116,822--nearly 1.4 million minutes, the most free minutes used since Operation Uplink's program's inception in 1996.
To find out more about VFW Operation Uplink, click here.