History

2005

Jeff Nix purchases season basketball tickets to the U.S. Air Force Academy to support Jeff Bzdelik, his friend and head coach, and donates them to the kids at Fort Carson.

2006

Jeff and his business partner, Ray Stults, decide to do more for the kids at Fort Carson and hold a fundraising event for The Home Front Cares^TM organization to purchase tickets to Air Force football and basketball games.

In what proves to be an atypical backyard summer BBQ, a coaching and special guests roster including…

Rod Balanis	Notre Dame
Daimon Beathea	Elkhart Express
Todd Beer	Lt. Colonel Retired, Pilot – Air Force One
Shay Boyle	Loyola (Illinois)
Mike Brey	Notre Dame
Jeff Bzdelik	Colorado
Chris Collins	Duke
Tom Crean	Marquette (now Indiana)
Gene Cross	Notre Dame (now Toledo)
Hubert Davis	NBA – ESPN
Mike Ditka	NFL – NFL Hall of Fame
LaPhonso Ellis	NBA – Notre Dame
Dane Fife	IPFW
Steve Hawkins	Western Michigan
Martin Ingelsby	Notre Dame
Tom Izzo	Michigan State
Stan Joplin	Toledo
Sean Kearney	Notre Dame
Mike Lightfoot	Bethel
Ray McCallum	Indiana (now Detroit)
Muffet McGraw	Notre Dame
Matt Painter	Purdue
John Paxson	NBA – Chicago Bulls
Michael Peterson	Country Music Artist
Digger Phelps	ESPN – Notre Dame
Tim “Shine” Raynor	U.S.M.C.
Kelvin Sampson	Indiana (now Milwaukee Bucks)
Dave Shepherd	Indiana Mr. Basketball—1970
Brad Stevens	Butler
Jonathan Tsipis	Notre Dame
Jerry Wainwright	DePaul

……helped to raise enough money to send more than 1,000 kids to Air Force athletic events.

2007

The mission grows to include the children of Fort Carson and Fort Benning, as well as the Illinois – Indiana – Michigan National Guard and Marine Corps units.

Camouflage Kids impacted twelve colleges and athletic departments during the 2007-08 school year:

Fort Benning	Fort Carson
Auburn, U.S. Air Force Academy

Indiana National Guard & Marine Corp

Butler, Indiana, IPFW, Notre Dame, Purdue & Valparaiso

Michigan National Guard & Marine Corp

Michigan State, Western Michigan & Toledo

Illinois National Guard & Marine Corp

DePaul

The Camo Kids cause is born and almost 2,000 children enjoyed a college campus and athletic event.

2008

Gaining momentum and growing, Camouflage Kids activities included its annual fundraising event featuring Hall of Fame basketball coach Bob Knight, an inaugural golf outing and a basketball clinic for our military children (and also children from the Boys & Girls Club and northern Indiana fire and police departments). Headlining the basketball clinic was instruction from former Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps and former NBA players Hubert Davis and LaPhonso Ellis.

Other coaches and special guests enjoying our Camouflage Kids fundraising event for the first time included Dino Gaudio (Wake Forest), Ed Conroy (The Citadel), Angie Potthoff-Barber (Notre Dame), Chris Zorich (NFL – Notre Dame), Major General Robert Mixon (U.S. Army – Retired), Jeff Meyer (Michigan), Andy Hipsher (Western Michigan), Kevin Kuwik (Butler), Steve Groothuis (Loyola – Illinois), Roy White (Snowball Express), and Rick Kell (Operation Hardwood).

All events proved very successful and will enable us to include even more colleges in our Camouflage Kids schedule for 2008-09.

Ball State University

Canisius College

Niagara University

St. Bonaventure University

SMU

The Citadel

U.S. Military Academy

U.S. Naval Academy

University at Buffalo

University of Michigan

University of San Diego

2009-10

The 2009-10 Camouflage Kids program was outstanding as we had 12 college athletic events across the country impacting over 2,300 military children and families. Coach Herb Sendek and the Arizona State University basketball team welcomed Camouflage Kids to their beautiful campus last season for a great basketball event compliments of U-Haul.

Over the past two years, contributions have impacted over 5,500 military children at 34 events. What started as four basketball season tickets to Fort Carson and the Air Force Academy has now grown to impact thousands.