Providing Troops with Holiday Cheer
The Orange County Register | By Lillie Davis
Operation Christmas Care Packages
On November 14, The YMCA of Orange County is partnered with Words of Comfort, Hope and Promise (a non-profit organization 501(c)(3) serving those in the U.S. Armed Forces and their families), Cub Scout Pack 290, Hot Yoga, and Starbucks stores in the Huntington Beach area to bring some Christmas joy to our military families.
The holiday season can be an especially difficult time for our troops overseas, so with your help and support, we would like to collect as many donations as possible and send our troops a taste of home during this Christmas season!
Jasmina Muller, a member of the Parent Advisory Council at Peterson Elementary, started this tradition back in 2006 when her husband was deployed to the border in San Diego with the Border patrol agents. She wanted to provide him and other service members a nice Thanksgiving dinner since they were away from home and started Stockings for the Troops through donations.
“Times have changed since we were little. These days a lot of kids expect to get things, rather than see what others need. I have always taught my children, they have a roof over their head, they get dinner every night so they are lucky. Imagine not having basic things in life and then imagine the service members, fighting for what we have, to have the freedom of just doing anything. To stuff some stockings to give them ‘a little piece of home’….it’s priceless! I love watching the smiles and laughter that this service projects brings to the kids and our troops”.
Operation Christmas Care Packages is an annual program hosted by WOCHP, in collaboration with other organizations. With the support of volunteers and contributors, we are able to come together to create care packages for military personnel overseas who are unable to spend Christmas with their families. Please donate to Operation Christmas Care Packages to keep this great program going each year, and to touch the lives of our brave men and women overseas.
November 23, 2013
