• Welcome veterans home
• Honor fallen soldiers at memorial services
• Send parents to visit injured soldiers

All over the country, Patriot Guard volunteers help veterans and their families by providing “flag lines” at veteran’s funerals and memorial services, welcoming veterans home, sending parents to hospitals to visit injured soldiers and providing encouragement and inspiration to wounded soldiers. Funds will be used to continue these efforts at a local level in Minnesota.

• Care for K9s to help in search and rescue efforts
• Replace and train one future rescue animals

This K9 team is entirely staffed by volunteers and services all of Western Kentucky in live search and rescue missions, as well as locating deceased victims of drowning, fire or scattered remains. Paducah Taco John’s will match this grant so the unit will be able to replace one of two dogs that passed away last year.

• Build a wooden play structure in Sioux Valley
• Support healthy outdoor activity

The Sioux Valley (which represents three small towns around Brookings) has been raising funds to replace their existing wooden play structure. This grant will finish off the project, benefitting over 600 area children this August. Brookings Taco John’s has already assisted in previous projects supporting this cause.

• Establish youth soccer in Madison
• Provide a healthy environment for children to learn teamwork, sportsmanship and commitment

Soccer Madison will use this grant money to establish a youth soccer program in Madison. Although Madison is the the 13th largest town in South Dakota, it’s the only community among the top 20 populated South Dakota towns without a soccer program. This grant will have the program up and running by fall 2011.

• Extend community trails
• Promote health and fitness

This grant will help almost double the existing eight miles of hiking and biking trails in the community. The mission of the Trails Council is to promote health and fitness in the community by providing more free trails for walking, biking and hiking, benefitting local citizens as well as visitors.

• Teach safety to children ages 4-6
• Purchase new videos and learning materials

Safety Town is a program affiliated with the Brookings Police Department, teaching safety to children ages 4-6. This ten-day program meets for two hours each day, focusing on hands-on learning experiences from fire safety to water safety and EMT issues. Funding will be used to purchase new videos and materials for the classroom part of Safety Town, which reaches 240 children each year.

• Promote and coordinate a series of local town events
• Reinforce a sense of community in Rosemount

This effort will fund collaborative, community-wide events in October ranging from a book signing to dancing, talks, games, panel discussions, an antique car show, fashion shows and a community food drive, all of which revolve around the book “A Long Way Home from Chicago” by Richard Peck. The program will use themes in the book to promote a month of local events, reinforcing a sense of community in Rosemount.

• Build park shade shelters
• Increase comfort for park visitors

The funds from this project will help build shade shelters and improve the comfort, health and overall well-being of visitors exploring this 100+ year old park that houses several playgrounds, nature trails, a petting zoo, skateboard park and much more. Team members from Taco John’s have already volunteered their time to assist in the shelter building and will be matched by the Chippewa Falls Parks Dept.

• Provide new softball bleachers and dugouts
• Improve youth sports and community softball program

Funding from this project will replace cuts made by the local school district to provide new bleachers and dugouts at a local softball field. The field not only hosts local school district games, but also hosts the community softball program and Little League games, so the investment will benefit the community beyond the school. Current players, parents and community volunteers with tools and skills will pitch in to do the heavy lifting along with Taco John’s employees.