Band of Brothers aims to raise $40,000 for charity projects with annual calendar sale

The Band of Brothers recently launched their annual calendar fundraiser, aiming to raise at least $40,000 to assist underprivileged children and elderly residents with home repairs. The $15 calendars feature Al Tucker’s West Virginia photos. Proceeds fund about 25 local programs.

Monica Zalaznik
October 1, 2025

The Band of Brothers hopes to raise at least $40,000 with their annual calendar sale to help underprivileged children and elderly people in need of repairs around their homes.

Al Tucker, a Band of Brothers representative, attended the Sept. 25 Upshur County Commission meeting to announce the launch of this year’s calendar fundraiser. Tucker takes pictures all over West Virginia to make the calendars, which cost $15. All the money goes toward different charitable projects.

“We feel it’s really a story of love, of caring. Our story of caring and love is made possible by the people of Upshur County. Their generosity has been amazing,” Tucker said. “When we started this back in 2015, we didn’t know what we were getting into. We printed 500 calendars, and we sold them, raising about $12,000. We just distributed that all locally. We did do a couple of mission trips and things like that, and by 2018, we were up to $24,000, so it didn’t take that long to double it.”

In 2020, the Band of Brothers didn’t think they would be able to raise many funds due to the pandemic.

“We made $42,000, and that’s the year we went out and supported some nursing homes here in Upshur, Lewis and a couple of other counties. We did 35 nursing homes, and we helped to really give a great Christmas for their residents. That was amazing,” Tucker said. “Two years later, in 2022, we were up to $46,000 and last year, 2024, we were just shy of $60,000. As I said, the love and the caring and the generosity of the people in Upshur County made it possible.”

The Band of Brothers contribute funds to about 25 different entities, including the Prison Angel Tree Program, youth mission programs, the Grand Families program, the Upshur Parish House, the SETH Project and youth scholarships. The group also supports the statewide Underprivileged Children Foundation.

“We’ve had focus areas — we’ve helped the flood zone down in southern West Virginia, helped flood victims over in Wetzel County, and we helped the kids of Kentucky, when there was some really bad, bad flooding down there,” Tucker said. “We have really tried to focus on areas where there’s a great need, and we’ve been able to meet a lot of that because of the increasing generosity.”

The Band of Brothers plans to focus more locally this year.

“We’re going to stay pretty close to where we were last year; we’re targeting $40,000, hoping to reach $50,000. We have a great group of men who are putting in handicapped ramps for a lady who lost her kitchen in a fire; we went and did that this year, and just a lot of minor maintenance, repair work for elderly people who just can’t do it or can’t afford it,” Tucker said. “Dr. Karl Boone and Kevin Hawkins lead those efforts, and we put anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000 into doing that kind of work.”

They will also still help underprivileged children by working with the Stockert Youth and Community Center and the Upshur County Family Resource Network.

“Shout out to Lori Ulderich Harvey and Debora Brockleman at Stockert; they really helped us with the kids at risk over the past couple of years,” Tucker said. “We used to do this through the school and reach the kids in Upshur County, but with the situation in the school system, we had to pull back from that, and we’ve found a great source there with Stockert.”

Tucker said he was worried they wouldn’t be able to do the fundraiser this year due to health concerns.

“I didn’t think this was going to happen this year. Some of you know I’ve had ongoing cardiac issues, and last year’s project was really, really tough, but fortunately, I got a couple of stents in March,” Tucker said. “When you know the need out there, we knew we had to do it. We feel like we represent Upshur County, and we really appreciate all the support you give us.”

Calendars can be purchased by calling any member of the group, and checks must be made out to the Band of Brothers.