Achievements
Patriot Military Family Foundation (PMFF) is dedicated to providing our military service members and their families the dignity and support owed to them by a grateful nation as they deal with the consequences of their service. We focus on providing for the needs that are not provided for through any existing benefits programs. It is through the generosity of those who support PMFF that these needs, those who often “fall through the cracks” and go unseen, are met for those who have nowhere else to turn.
Rick Cantwell, founder of PMFF, and a retired Special Operations officer, founded the charity. Based on Rick’s involvement in the military, the charity is often asked to step in and help with financial needs of individual families.
Each year, our Honor the Warriors Bike Ride provides a weekend family ‘retreat’ for 20 Warrior Riders in the Mint Hill and Huntersville area, North Carolina.
PMFF provided over 160 baby shower gifts to expecting mothers of deployed service members stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC. We participated in Toys for Troops which provided an evening of visiting Santa and Family Fun at Discovery Place, Charlotte, NC for 150 children of active military personnel.
Christmas of 2015 we provided Christmas gifts for the families of 59 soldiers in the Carolinas who had given the ultimate sacrifice and whose families would have had much less at Christmas without this.
We provide financial assistance to the Soul Widows program, where widows and widowers get together to learn how to deal with their grief, share their sorrows with those experiencing the same agony, and help them to begin to build a bridge to their future.
PMFF developed and supported an initiative, Military Spouses on Call, MSOC, where training is provided, and work from home jobs created, so that spouses of those serving our country can have a career that can move with the military family as they are transferred to a new installation.
We have organized ‘reconnect weekends’ in Colorado and provided a relaxing escape for families to reconnect after deployments. The goal is to help reduce the 70% divorce rate currently being experienced by soldiers after their return.
PMFF participates in several scholarship programs for children of deployed and service-disabled veterans’ sons and daughters.
PMFF took on its largest fundraising effort to date and was part of 555Charity, 5 charities combined to provide 5 homes to 5 area veterans. PMFF provided over 160 volunteers and led the community effort to successfully break ground, and complete, a home for a service-disabled veteran and his family. Mission Accomplished was on Thanksgiving 2013. Our second home was completed and a second family settled in 2015. We are now starting our third home, with several more in planning stages.
We teamed with the USO of North Carolina and Purple Heart Homes to sponsor the 1st Annual Selfless Service award in May, 2013 and 2015, where the funds raised were in support of scholarship programs and for the 1sthome for 555Charity. This year the event will be a golf outing.
PMFForganized the Patriot Sporting Clays Classic in October, 2013 and continues to hold this event each year to raise funds for Special Forces scholarship programs.