Fayetteville Cares
Fayetteville, NC

 Fayetteville Cares is a community-based organization that was established in October 2007 to provide support for military personnel and their families before, during and after deployments. To date the group is best known for Boots & Booties, the baby shower last November that was even bigger than all the pregnant bellies in the room. The baby shower made the front page of the Sunday New York Times the following day and was featured in Time Magazine the next week. This year Fayetteville Cares is hoping to follow Boots and Booties' success with Operation Holiday Cheer, a massive care package drive to collect good from people in the community and send it to the Fayetteville area's deployed service members.

 The group has also stocked food in the barracks rooms of single soldiers returning from deployments, supplied cell phones so troops coming home without anyone there to greet them could call someone and hear a familar voice and worked with a local Chevrolet dealership to provide vans to transport wounded soldiers and their families.

 The goal of the group is simple: To show Fayetteville's military community that the city does indeed care.

 Do you remember hearing something last year about a massive baby shower for 1,000 military moms? That was Fayetteville Cares. Maybe you heard something about plan to send 15,000 Christmas care packages to deployed soldiers and airmen from Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base this year – again, that's Fayetteville Cares. Or maybe you've heard about a website where Bragg- and Pope-based military families with needs can go to find out which businesses and individuals in the community want to do something to help – well, that's www.fayettevillecares.org.