Keeping Our Community Spirit
This year has been a challenge for our fraternal programs, but we rose to this challenge by working to create programs, such as our Districts in Action program, that allowed us to help our local communities while staying safe and maintaining social distancing.
As you well know, the COVID-19 virus affected MANY people who became unemployed and were not able to put food on their tables. MANY members supported our Districts in Action program through which GBU and its members donated $249,902 towards first responders around the country. Amazing! Thank you GBU members. We helped thousands of people to get through this unusual and difficult time. But our work is not over. There are still a lot of families in need! That is why we will be continuing this program for next year. Keep an eye out for information from your district to find out which local organization it will be supporting for 2021.
The COVID-19 Pandemic has also caused challenges for our annual Operation Reach Out program. Last year we had more than 250 volunteers work together to organize and pack 5,000 care packages to send to our deployed service members all over the world. This year, restrictions do not allow for this type of event. We have chosen, instead to support Operation Troop Appreciation, a local Pittsburgh organization that helps both deployed service members and veterans in need. We will be providing donations and funding to help fulfill wish- list items for our men and women overseas as well as household items to help returning veterans. We will support this program from October 2020 through March 2021. You can help with this program by coloring cards to include in care packages, donating wish-list items through Amazon, making a monetary donation or volunteering for one of our monthly, small-scale volunteer events. You can find out more about this year's Operation Reach Out at GBUCares.org/Operation-Reach-Out.
We in the GBU Fraternal Department would like to wish you happy holidays. We are looking forward to great things to come in the new year as we work together to achieve our mission and help our communities grow together!
What is GBU all about and where are we headed as a fraternal organization?
Well, 128 years ago GBU was formed by German immigrants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to help them acclimate to their new environment in the United States. The new fraternal organization helped support each other through tough financial times AND enjoy social and athletic activities together. Today, this initial fraternal concept of our first National President, Louis Volz, has been expanded to so much more! Today GBU’s formal mission is to “Strengthen and protect the financial well-being of our members and help support their communities.” With those concepts in mind, I presented a three-year strategic plan to GBU’s Board of Directors which focuses our fraternal mission into three fraternal pillars;
- Charitable
- Education
- Wellness
years, you will see many new programs be developed to support these three fraternal pillars. Beginning January 1, 2021, we are adding a new program called the Member Match program. Through this new fraternal program, GBU will match up to $100 in donations that individual GBU members make until March 31, 2021. These donations must be supportive of a 501(c)3 charitable organization which falls within the scope of our three-pillared focus.
Bringing Our Members Together
This month, we are launching our new GBU Life Member Community. This private online community just for GBU members will allow our members to communicate with each other and with GBU in order to further our fraternal mission. Through this app members will be able to stay up-to-date on all GBU news and events, access your member benefits, forms and documents and team up with districts and other members for community projects. If you have received email communications from GBU in the past, keep an eye out for your invitation to join the community. If you have not, you can request an invite and sign up at community.gbu.org.
