This past spring, Bailey's Run Vineyard in New Glarus created a special wine called Bring Me Home, which they started selling on Memorial Day Weekend. In August, they donated $10 from every bottle, totaling $6,000, to the Ben Jackson Foundation.

The Ben Jackson Foundation, a New Glarus based non-profit, provides "Ticket Home Awards" which help pay for travel expenses of first-term US military members when coming home on leave.

As a result of Bailey's donation, the Ben Jackson Foundation was able to help seven additional young service members come home from Washington, Nevada, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea. Four of these are from Wisconsin, including Chippewa Falls, Manawa, Baldwin, and Appleton.

One recipient from Manawa, Daryn Claussen, was able to surprise his sister at her wedding earlier this month.

Another service member, Jacob Bull from Appleton, said, "It had been nearly 13 months since I'd seen my family in person, and I was able to spend 3 weeks with them because of the Ben Jackson Foundation and Bailey's Run Vineyard."

Ben Jackson, who graduated from New Glarus High School in 2016, was serving in the Air Force when he died in April of 2018. Seven weeks before that, he traveled home from Japan to visit family and friends in New Glarus. Ben's family wanted to make sure other young military members had the same opportunity to visit home and founded the Ben Jackson Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization.

To date, the Foundation has given over 170 Ticket Home awards totaling almost $120,000 to military members stationed around the world. For more information, including information on how to make a donation, please visit https://www.benjacksonfoundation.org.