MAT Gives Back 2020!

Help the Marina Association of Texas support the noble cause of Folds of Honor: to provide educational scholarships to spouses and children of America's fallen and disabled service members. Make a donation and encourage your business owners, employees, and tenants to get involved as well. Spread the word!

Learn more bout Folds of Honor at their website: www.foldsofhonor.org, and see some great informational and inspirational videos about their mission on their Vimeo page: https://vimeo.com/foldsofhonor. 

This October, you can donate online or you can send a check to Folds of Honor directly at 4159 Herschel Avenue, Dallas, TX 75219. Our goal is $75,000. With your help, we can do it!

More on MAT Gives Back

MAT Gives Back has become a fixture of the Marina Association of Texas Conference, but like everything else in 2020, we are having to adapt this annual fundraiser to today’s world. MAT Gives Back is moving online this year. I know we will all miss the camaraderie and competition that the cornhole tournament provides, but it’s just not in the cards this year. Instead, we are holding a “no frills fundraiser” during the month of October. Over the last three years of MAT Gives Back, we have accomplished quite a bit. We should be proud of what we have done and motivated to keep this going, especially in a year where so much is uncertain for some many people.

In August of 2017, the Texas Coast was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey. The Marina Association of Texas had a conference scheduled for just a month later on Galveston Island. There was a hole in the schedule that needed to be filled, and we felt a call to respond to the devastation on the coast. The MAT Board put together a pool tournament, thinking it would be great to have a little fun and be able to donate maybe a thousand dollars to a worthy cause. To everyone’s surprise, after just a few hours of playing pool at a local pool hall in Galveston, MAT raised $17,021.74 to be donated to the Rockport Volunteer Fire Department.

When we began planning for the 2018 MAT Conference, including a MAT Gives Back event seemed like a no-brainer. We chose Folds of Honor as a recipient. Folds of Honor provides educational scholarships to the spouses and children of America’s fallen and disabled service-members. The heart of the MAT membership showed again. We raised $61,020 in 2018 for Folds of Honor at our cornhole tournament. We returned to Galveston in 2019 and had another MAT Gives Back Cornhole Tournament. That year we raised $70,198.24. Over the three years of MAT Gives Back, we have raised a total of $148,239.98.

If the brief history of MAT Gives Back has taught us anything, it is that we should not underestimate the charitable spirit of MAT members. Each year we have outdone ourselves, which has resulted in 26 scholarships for the family members of fallen or wounded service-members and a sizable donation to a small volunteer fire department. Our donations have made a lasting and significant impact on the lives of many. And in 2020, we have the opportunity to add to the good we have already done.

This year, MAT Gives Back will be a “no frills fundraiser.” We’re having to forego the fun of being together and playing cornhole. We’re missing the networking opportunity. But that doesn’t mean that we can just push aside our donations until next year. Folds of Honor still needs funds to support their recipients. The recipients are depending on us to come through.

You’ll be receiving emails in the coming weeks encouraging you to visit our MAT Gives Back website and give. We’ll be raising funds all throughout the month of October. Talk to your team. Talk to your corporate office. Talk to your tenants and other customers. Get the word out. We are setting the goal at $75,000, which would make this our best year ever. I know we can reach that.

Thank you to the following Patriots:
Safe Harbor Marinas donated $15,000
Twin Coves Marina donated $1,000
Scott's Landing Marina donated $1,000
Silverlake Marina donated $1,000
Highport Marina donated $1,000
Pier 121 Marina donated $1,000
Emerald Point Marina donated $1,000
Walden Marina donated $1000
Peggy Ong donated $500 - In Memory of Jim Ong, a WW2 Veteran and early President of MAT
Rough Hollow Yacht Club donated $500
HydroHoist donated $2,500
Greg Marcus donated $50
Alexander Broat donated $100
Stellar Software donated $200
Collin Park Marina donated $1,500
Westside Marine donated $500
Ben Miller donated $250
Eagle Floats donated $6,500
Cottonwood Creek Marina donated $6,161.87
Ryan Miller donated $500
MDI - Roger Otis donated $3,500