The Heroes at Home free gift card registry program, run and funded by Sears, will open for registration August 30 at 1 p.m. Central Time, according to the Sears website.
The program, which last year was embroiled in controversy and resulted in embarrassing behavior from many in the military spouse community after the registry’s server crashed, gives free, $52 Sears gift cards to active duty families.
Last year’s sign-up was an absolute fiasco. When the server supporting the sign-up crashed under the volume of users, Sears chose to abandon all registrations that occurred before the breakdown and reschedule the program opening for later in the week.
Some who thought they had registered did not know that they needed to sign-up again, and others who didn’t get in the first time made the list during the re-try session. Instead of thanking the company for even being willing to facilitate a free gift card program, the result was a bitter conversation that questioned the program Sears’ eligibility requirements, including why the program is open to all military pay grades.
Frankly, it made the entire community look like a bunch of entitled, complaining, well … I think you know where I’m going with this.
If I were the corporate executive who approves and oversees this charitable program, I’d say “goodbye military community, you are not the kind of people I want to help. I’m taking my support to the starving children in Africa.”
But instead they are giving us another chance. Isn’t that nice of them? So let’s ready our Sunday School behavior and register.
How? It’s pretty simple:
Visit this site on August 30 at 1 p.m. CT – that’s 2 p.m. for you East Coast folks and 11 a.m. for those on the West Coast. Fill out the form, follow the prompts on the screen and be prepared for it to maybe not work just like you think it will.
But before you start your engines or gird your loins, I want you to think about two things:
1. If you aren’t struggling financially, leave the program’s limited spots open for someone who is. These gift cards are meant for Christmas gift shopping. Not worried about covering the cost of that new pack of underwear your child is sure to be just tickled to pieces over? Consider giving this giveaway a pass.
2. This is a gift! So the website crashes. So your child hurls his cup of milk at your head five seconds before the sign-up starts and by the time you recover all the spots are filled. It’s going to be OK. Take a deep breath and be happy for those who did get in.
Happy registering!
