Welcome to the first MilitaryBridge Blog Post! I hope that what we share on the MB Blog is helpful and meaningful in your life as a military member, dependent, or veteran. I would like to start our MB blog with a brief introduction of myself, Jennifer Borgstrom, the founder of MilitaryBridge, and why I started my company back in May 2012.
I feel very fortunate to call myself a military spouse. Through my experience as a military spouse and now military family, I learned that there are many rewarding and challenging aspects in being a part of the military community.
There are many rewards to military life such as how unbelievably proud I am of my husband for his 20+ years of service to our country, the amazing military families we have met through the years, and the adventures we were able to partake in along this military journey, all of which have all been life changing.
One of the main challenges that we have been faced with along with many other military members, spouses, and families was the recurrent theme of PCSing (permanent change of station/moving). Our family has been very fortunate to have been based here in Hampton Roads for several years. That being said, I have learned first-hand and through many military friends/families the struggles faced with PCSing multiple times in a military career. Through my experiences of moving to new communities and starting all over again from finding the best vet clinic, restaurants, to pediatrician, it can be a very frustrating and overwhelming process. I realized that there needed to be a resource for military members to trust and go to in effort to easily learn about great military-friendly businesses in their military community.
It has also been my experience that not only was there a disconnect between a resource connecting military members to great local businesses, but there was also a disconnect for these great businesses trying to connect and offer their great services and discounts to the military community. This is how the concept of "MilitaryBridge" was formed. Our mission is to "Connect Military Members with the best of local business". I wanted to start this journey and mission with MB to bridge the "gap" that I saw between PCSing to new communities and the challenges military members faced such as finding valid local military discounts, finding military-friendly businesses with a reputation for great service, and learning about great military related events and programs in your military town. I also realized that these businesses had to have a wonderful reputation in their military community for great service. Only the best businesses could be a part of what we do! This is top priority.
MilitaryBridge is still evolving since our launch in May 2012. We have now expanded from the Hampton Roads area to Richmond, Virginia and Washington D.C. coming this Spring (we are currently looking for sales managers to be a part of our team!). MB has also evolved as a resource. MB started with the mission to bring together award-winning businesses in our local community to now also sharing wonderful national businesses and online military discounts. I realized that not only do companies locally want to honor military members and families through their great service and/or discounts, but so do businesses online.
I also take great pride in sharing important information through Facebook and Twitter as it relates to wonderful military related community events and programs. Coming soon to MB, be on the look-out for our Military Home Rewards Program launching soon! MB is partnering up with the top military-friendly real estate companies across the country to provide a cash back rebate from the buying/selling of your home. I realize the stress of PCSing and it will be very rewarding to assist in providing top knotch real esate agents in your local community and a lucrative cash back rebate program.
MB is also working on creating a one stop shop website for learning about all the wonderful non-profit military related programs available to the military community! I have also learned being a military spouse/family that there are so many unbelievable programs available to us today. I will use the old saying "If I only knew then what I know now!" When I first married my husband and moved with the military, I did not feel like I knew about any of these amazing programs available to help out for all different situations. After years in the military, I now have learned and I am still learning that there is a program to help you as a military spouse/family/dependent with just about anything you may need. It will become my mission to share them with you all so you will know there is help/support and programs out there for us to take advantage of to aid in making your military life as wonderful as it can be.
I also should note that not only is our website intended for military members, dependents, and spouses but also retired military members. The majority of our military-friendly businesses locally, nationally, and online extend their military discounts to veterans. It is something that we encourage strongly at MB since military veterans have made the same sacrifices as active, reserve, and guard military members make.
If there is ever anything that I can do to make our website and blog at MilitaryBridge more beneficial please don't hesitate to contact us at info@militarybridge.com I am always happy to hear from others on how I can improve our site. Also, please feel free to share any blog topics you may want me to cover or if you have interest in doing a guest blog post as I welcome that as well. If you would like to receive our blog posts via email please sign up here. I look forward to sharing many posts in the future on many military related topics so stay tuned and Thank you!
Best,
Jennifer Borgstrom
Proud Military Spouse and Founder of MilitaryBridge
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