Freedom's Ring

Founding Story

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Sara Hunold was a high school Civics and Free Enterprise teacher, coach, and activities advisor at Yuma Catholic High School, when she met and married her husband (a U.S. Marine stationed in Arizona at the time). In 2014, 10 days after their second child was born, they PCSed 2,665 miles away leaving family, friends, life long community, and a teaching career at the school she graduated from and had the dream of being it's principal.

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With a 15 month old and newborn, Sara and her husband decided together it was best for her to stay home as they were moving to an independent duty station with little support and the demands of recruiting duty would add stress if she worked outside the home. Even though Sara believed this to be important work (as her faith, degrees in Family Studies and Human Development and Political Science stressed that the family is the foundation of society) the lack of community and seemingly lack of a greater contribution to society made the transition tough for her.

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While focusing on the family, she leaned on audiobooks as a way to adult. One book she listened to at the end of 2015 was "Charlie Mike: A True Story of Heroes Who Brought Their Mission Home" and fell in love with what these veteran's organizations were doing for veteran well-being and America and thought even though she wasn't a veteran, she could be more proactive to use service to bring back a greater sense of purpose and personal identity she lost sight of after staying home.

 

This was a perfect revelation for Sara, because service is a long held value for both her and her husband. Sara had received awards in school for her service to her school and community and more notably spent a spring break during college in New Orleans for Katrina relief and a couple of weeks of summer in Tanzania on a mission trip with Young Life. This value of service and civic duty is something Sara and her husband desire to model for their kids and teach them while they are young.

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In the 2017, Freedom's Ring was formally incorporated with the mission to unite military families with their communities by putting their patriotism in action and doing extraordinary acts for others together because Sara heard other military spouses talk about searching for the same greater sense of purpose, personal identity, and sense of community she had experienced. In the fall, Freedom's Ring received 501(c)(3) status. 

 

We believe every extraordinary acts for others makes our country more extraordinary because it contributes to the spirit of our communities and country. We believe patriotism is an action word seen in our service to others as it creates an America worth living in and fighting for.

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In the summer of 2020, Sara's younger brother Mark (28) died from cancer. To honor him and to feed the desire of military spouses to leave a legacy at each duty station we changed patriotism in action to reMARKable Patriotism and added the focus on "leaving a positive mark" in our communities.  For those who knew and loved Mark, knew the strong community he had around him and that support made all the difference on his toughest days and they knew he made his mark on them.  That's a life and sense of community we all desire.

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