The Purple Heart holiday ornament promotion — initiated and coordinated by ROI — raises awareness, needed funding and hope for the leading organization serving America’s combat-wounded veterans.
The Purple Heart Medal honors patriotism, sacrifice and courage. Established by George Washington in 1782, the Purple Heart is the oldest award still given to men and women of the U.S. military wounded in combat. Purple Heart Foundation is the fundraising engine of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a congressionally-chartered, veteran service organization foundation. Its programs include service officers helping veterans access and receive their VA benefits, scholarships, PTS / TBI support, suicide prevention programs, women’s health issues, partnerships to provide service dogs to wounded veterans and much more.
Max Nellis, ROI principal David Nellis’ second-oldest son, is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. Luckily and happily, Max came home and now lives with his wife and two kids in Stafford, VA. Many other returning combat vets — and many others who never returned — were not as fortunate as Max was to escape injuries in combat. That fact was emphasized to David by his friend, Jim Hatch, son of a former Marine and actively involved in helping former service members find employment across the DC area.
So, David, Jim and the ROI team cooked up an idea and approached Purple Heart. Our thought was for ROI, on a purely pro bono basis, to bring all the right players together to create the ornament. First step was to find a noted, American artist to design a signature, high-quality holiday ornament that could be sold for Purple Heart’s benefit as an heirloom to grace the homes of many Americans for years to come.
We approached nationally renowned, jewelry artist Ann Hand (www.annhand.com), who lives in Georgetown and is married to Lloyd Hand, U.S. Chief of Protocol under President Johnson. She heartily agreed to jump into the project pro bono and within a few, short weeks had produced a stunning design for the ornament, one readily approved by Purple Heart's board of directors.
Produced in the U.S. by the Charleston Mint, the ornament truly is one-of-a kind. Proceeds from sales will support Purple Heart’s mission of helping all veterans and their families this year and for many years to come.
Along with a transactional website (built with backend help from ROI’s longtime web marketing partner, ActiveMedia (activemedia.com) and its founder and CEO, Laszlo Horvath), ROI created a spectrum of soft and hardcopy promotional materials to promote ornament purchases from among Purple Heart members (45,000), active and retired military and their families and all Americans who honor and appreciate the sacrifices of our soldiers in our nation’s honor.
Our work to ensure that Purple Heart enjoys an awesome selling season this year and for many years down the road is just begun. We’re happy to help and proud of each and every Purple Heart recipient whose service to America is incalculable.
Want to purchase this incredibly beautiful, porcelain ornament? Willing to tell friends and family about it? To do so, please visit purpleheartornament.org.