Sport Clips Haircuts Kicks Off Effort to Help Heroes Call Home with Half Million Dollar Goal

Nation's leader in men's and boys' hair care teams up with VFW Operation Uplink™ to raise awareness and money to help troops call home

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Sport Clips

Oct 13, 2011, 10:25 ET

GEORGETOWN, Texas, Oct. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- For the fifth straight year, Sport Clips Haircuts is helping make phone calls home possible for deployed and hospitalized U.S. service members through its "Help a Hero" campaign, benefitting the Veterans of Foreign Wars' Operation Uplink™. Beginning October 17 through November 13, more than 800 Sport Clips locations nationwide will raise funds to continue to provide service members with free phone time once a month and on holidays throughout the year.

"Some believe that the draw down in troops and access to the Internet means phone calls aren't as important to service members as they once were. However, since 2007, through our Help a Hero program, service members have been afforded more than 1.3 million calls to loved ones and spent 15 million minutes talking to them through company and client donations," says Sport Clips Founder and CEO Gordon Logan. "These calls are more than just 'morale' calls. They're often a lifeline for those who are far from home – sometimes on their second or third deployment. The calls were important to me when I was overseas in the Air Force, and are still important today."

Since setting their first goal at $30,000 in 2007, Sport Clips has more than doubled their goal for the program each year. This year, the franchise is aiming to raise $500,000 for Help a Hero by collecting donations at check-out. Also, Sport Clips will donate $1 from every hair care service on Veterans Day, Friday, November 11 - what the company calls "The Biggest Haircut Day of the Year."

"Our Sport Clips team members are excited to be a part of this meaningful effort that helps our U.S. service members connect with loved ones, and they do some really creative things to make it successful," says Logan. "Some of our stylists and managers hold bake sales, dinners, dances, and have even sponsored football games between branches of the services to generate excitement in this program."

Sport Clips is now the VFW's largest single-donation free call day sponsor, having donated more than $860,000 to Operation Uplink™ since 2007. For more information, visit your local Sport Clips store or SportClips.com.

About Sport Clips

Sport Clips is headquartered in Georgetown, Texas and was established in 1995 by founder and CEO Gordon Logan. The franchise has ranked in Entrepreneur Magazine's top 50 "fastest growing franchises" for the seventh straight year and has been ranked in "Franchise 500" for 12 consecutive years, in the top 10 in Forbes' "Top 20 Franchises To Start", and in the top 50 in Dun & Bradstreet's AllBusiness.com "2011 AllBusiness AllStars". Sport Clips is the "Official Haircutter" of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and offers veterans preferential pricing on haircuts and franchises. Our "Help a Hero" program has donated more than three-quarters of a million dollars to help soldiers overseas and in hospitals call home through the VFW's Operation Uplink. Sport Clips is a proud sponsor of Joe Gibbs Racing's NASCAR drivers, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin, and holds partnerships with several NCAA programs, and teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL). To learn about franchise opportunities click here, and for locations throughout the United States, visit SportClips.com. For media resources and additional information on Sport Clips, visit SportClipsMedia.com.