Saline County will formally commit to supporting Kansas National Guard Service Members and their families at a Community Covenant Signing on Wednesday. In addition, a presentation and formal announcement regarding the Patriot Business Program’s growth to the state and soon to be national level will be made.

In attendance will be Mary Nesbitt, State Family Program Director for the Kansas National Guard and John Armbrust, Executive Director of the Governor’s Military Council and President of the Association of Defense Communities.

Joining Community Forces is a collaborative effort to develop and communicate initiatives that expands on the national-level “Joining Forces” campaign by focusing on grassroots solutions in support of Veterans, Military members, and Families. The primary goals are to foster a sustainable network of local support through governmental/non-governmental, non-profit, corporate partnerships, and local citizen collaboration to fill service and information gaps.

The initiative seeks to educate, leverage, and promote existing grassroots efforts and build community capacity to better support local military communities. The Patriot Business Program is an agreement between local chamber of commerce’s, military affairs councils or other veterans organization and an area business operator to offer a 10 percent or more discount to current military identification cardholders. The store must honor the discount at all times to display the logo in their place of business or any promotional materials. Those eligible for the discount are active duty, guard, reserve, retirees and their dependents. This does not include veterans who do not have a current military ID card or family members who do not hold a dependent ID card. The business is only required to honor the discount for those who produce proper military identification.

The mission of the Patriot Business Program is to create valuable savings for military members and their families by encouraging local businesses to offer meaningful discounts to current military identification cardholders. The voluntary action by the business to offer military discounts raises awareness about service members visiting or living in a community and fosters a positive relationship between the military and their civilian community.