Boot Campaign and Southwest Airlines Celebrate Military Families with Country Throwdown Tour Contest

TYLER, Texas, May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Boot Campaign, a military non-profit that donates to soldiers healing from a variety of physical and emotional combat wounds, announces their "Country Throwdown Tour Contest" with Southwest Airlines. Anyone in the United States can nominate an eligible military family to win a pack of four VIP tickets to one of five stops on the Country Throwdown Tour (http://www.countrythrowdown.com), featuring country artists Gary Allan, Justin Moore, Rodney Atkins, Josh Thompson, Sunny Sweeney, Eric Paslay, Florida Georgia Line, and more.  The public can nominate a military family whose family member is active duty military or received an honorable discharge within the last two years, resides in the continental United States, and served or is serving any branch of service, including the Guard and Reserve.  The nominations must include a 100-word essay on why the family is deserving.  Nominations will be received from May 24 through June 25.  Check contest rules for specific entry periods.

Concert locations include Glen Allen, VA (June 13), Pittsburgh (June 16), Milwaukee, WI (June 28), Chicago (June 30), and Nashville (July 8). Winners selected for each city will be flown courtesy of Southwest Airlines, receive hotel accommodations, four tickets to the concert, a chance to stand side stage and watch some of the artists perform, a meet and greet with Gary Allan, and a pair of the Boot Campaign's "Give Back Boots."

"The opportunity to provide a few service members and their families a day of fun and time with each other is the very least we can do," said Larry Murray, Director of Operations for the Boot Campaign. "This contest gives us the opportunity to take a few families that desperately need a break and offer them an experience that they will never forget amongst some of the best talent country music has to offer. I am so very thankful that Southwest Airlines and The Country Throwdown Tour have strapped on their boots to make this a special trip and a summer highlight for these military families."

Southwest Airlines is providing roundtrip travel and hotel accommodations to the winning families of the Country Throwdown Tour Contest and has supported Boot Campaign through ticket donations and participated in the Boot Campaign's photo project with a photo of its Chairman, President, and CEO wearing a pair of "Give Back Boots." 

"We are excited to celebrate military families by giving back to those who have given so much for our freedom and our country," said Linda Rutherford, Southwest Airlines Vice President of Communication and Strategic Outreach. "We are looking forward to reading the nominations of all these very deserving families, and helping the winners enjoy this fun and musical experience."

Southwest has a long history of supporting men and women in uniform; the carrier has been recognized numerous times by the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) for its commitment and support of the airline's Employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserve; been named a Top Military Employer by GI Jobs Magazine; and received recognition for naming November Military Heroes month and celebrating its partnerships with nonprofits focused on active duty military, veterans, and families of military members.

Nominate a military family for the Boot Campaign "Country Throwdown Tour Contest" at Facebook.com: https://www.facebook.com/bootcampaign/app_373036489404722. 

For more information on the Country Throwdown Tour, visit: http://www.countrythrowdown.com

The Boot Campaign
The Boot Campaign is a grassroots military appreciation and veteran awareness campaign started by five women from Texas, known as the Boot Girls.  The Boot Girls launched the Boot Campaign in 2009 to spread awareness of the needs of military personnel returning home from combat and express gratitude to current military.  Through the sale of military combat boots, the Boot Campaign donates proceeds to a group of partner charities that work with soldiers healing from a variety of physical and emotional combat wounds, embodying the campaign motto that, "When They Come Back, We Give Back." www.BootCampaign.com

About Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines continues to differentiate itself from other low-fare carriers—offering a reliable product with exemplary Customer Service. Southwest Airlines is the nation's largest carrier in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded and has acquired AirTran Airways, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Southwest Airlines Co. Southwest serves 73 cities in 38 states and remains one of the most honored airlines in the world known for its commitment to the triple bottom line of Performance, People, and Planet. To read more about how Southwest is doing its part to be a good citizen, visit southwest.com/citizenship to read the Southwest Airlines One Report™. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates more than 3,300 flights a day and has more than 37,000 Employees systemwide.

About 4Fini Inc. and Kevin Lyman:
4Fini Inc.'s Kevin Lyman and Sarah Baer are the creators and producers of the 2012 Country Throwdown Tour Fired Up by Kingsford. The annual Country Throwdown Tour, the only one of its kind in the world of country music, brings together top-selling artists with talented, emerging singer-songwriters in a festival environment where fans enjoy a day-long stream of music on multiple stages.

Lyman and Baer also are co-producers of the highly successful annual Rockstar Mayhem Festival, a summer metal festival now in its fifth year.  In addition, Lyman is the producer and creator of the successful Vans Warped Tour, the longest running traveling music and extreme sports festival in the world today.  With the Vans Warped Tour, Lyman pioneered the successful integration of corporate sponsors with the extreme lifestyle, creating a blueprint for sponsorship integration widely duplicated in the marketplace today.  In 2005, Kevin teamed up with John Reese to form Taste of Chaos, LLC (TOC, LLC) and produced the Rockstar Taste of Chaos Tour.  In 2007, TOC, LLC presented the first annual Rockstar Mayhem Festival, a summer metal festival featuring 15 metal bands including headliners Slipknot and Disturbed.

A success by all standards, Rockstar Mayhem Festival perhaps most notably integrated the camaraderie Lyman had created on the Vans Warped Tour into a metal festival.  Kevin and his company 4Fini Inc. have produced numerous other successful tour productions. Kevin is a music industry authority on multiple corporate branding projects, helping companies maintain the valuable street level credibility that endears their products to the youth market.

SOURCE Southwest Airlines