This Military Appreciation Month, Crown Royal has teamed up with both new and returning partners to raise funds and support for veteran military members.
“Veterans are the reason we get to do what we do,” singer-songwriter Mitchell Tenpenny told Forbes. “We tend to get so saturated with this world [that] we forget about the true heroes.”
Tenpenny is one of the country music stars, along with Meghan Patrick and Jameson Rodgers, who joined the whisky brand in this month’s fundraising events like their third annual charity golf tournament, this year with CreatiVets, the nonprofit on a mission to help veterans heal through music therapy and the arts, as well as a culinary class with Kittch’s Chefs and Vets program.
Mitchell Tenpenny sends out a care package to overseas military.
“For us, honoring the military goes beyond just a day or a month, at the core of Crown Royal is generosity and the brand prides itself on aligning with communities that embody a true, selfless spirit,” Hadley Schafer, director of Crown Royal Whisky shared with Forbes. “There is no other community closer to that than the military, so we’re honored to showcase gratitude to our brave servicemen and women.”
Tenpenny collaborated with Crown Royal at both events this May, and has also worked with Crown Royal on the Purple Bag Project – their program that began in 2010 as a way to turn the iconic purple, velvet drawstring bag that encases the Crown Royal bottle into care packages for the military overseas.
“I thought it was so unique that you got to write a handwritten note… you get a care package which is awesome but hearing that someone’s thinking about you, it intrigued me,” said Tenpenny, reflecting on what initially attracted him to the program.
As the son of an Air Force veteran, Tenpenny also has a personal connection to supporting Crown Royal’s efforts during Military Appreciation Month and beyond: “Getting to see those airplanes, to see what he [did] – it gave me an appreciation early on for what we’re allowed to do here [in this country] because of their sacrifices,” he shared.
After participating in this month’s physical events, Tenpenny further stressed the significance of spending one-on-one time with veterans as both an “eye-opening” and “humbling” experience. “When they’re around some of their buddies and you get to hear how they talk about their world and their experiences – it’s so different than ours,” he explained.
Tenpenny hopes that partnerships like this will help inspire awareness and appreciation outside this month. “We need to be reminded all the time… I want people to remember it every single day and I think that if we start appreciating what sacrifices these men and women have made we’ll get back to a better place.”
