Riviera Prep hosts monthly Shed Your Threads for $3, which gives students a break from their everyday uniform and allows them to dress in more casual clothing. The funds go to events for Riviera students to enjoy throughout the school year, like prom and homecoming. However, in November, those funds were donated to a worthy cause: “iPads for Soldiers.”

iPads for Soldiers is a volunteer-based group that raises money through donations. The mission of this organization is “to show love and gratitude to our deployed and wounded soldiers by gifting them iPads to help them easily connect to their families and loved ones while deployed or recovering from injuries.” These fundraising efforts and donations have allowed the organization to gift over 10,500 iPads to soldiers overseas as of March 2024.

Given this special opportunity, the Prep Campus was inspired to donate the funds collected from Shed Your Threads this past November.  As a result, iPads for Soldiers provided four wounded soldiers with iPads, offering a significant morale boost amidst the challenging and tragic circumstances of war overseas.

According to iPads for Soldiers website, the organization was created in 2009 by 25-year-old Wes Pritchett, a Kiowa helicopter pilot. When he went abroad to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, he realized that many of the soldiers overseas had limited access to TV, internet, and phones, and they could not carry computers in their rucksacks, which weighed 110 lbs. Pritchett realized that soldiers should have access to items that allow them to update their families, share photos, and enjoy entertainment services. This sparked the idea to give iPads to soldiers abroad.

Little actions spread a long way away from home. The Riviera Press would like to thank our fellow bulldogs who helped raise money for this important cause dedicated to helping our American heroes. iPads for Soldiers is extremely grateful to everyone who made this possible by participating in this fundraiser in November.