Military Families Get Early Christmas

Sarah Senty selects a gift item Thursday during Operation Homefront’s workshop at the Armed Forces Reserve building in Vaughn. Carol Herrick, Operation Homefront executive director, is at right.
Sarah Senty selects a gift item Thursday during Operation Homefront’s workshop at the Armed Forces Reserve building in Vaughn. Carol Herrick, Operation Homefront executive director, is at right.

— Dozens of area military families will have a few more presents under the Christmas tree this year thanks to Operation Homefront.

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Operation Homefront

To find out more about Operation Homefront or to help with its outreach programs, visit its website at operationhomefront.….

Volunteers for the nonprofit organization spent Thursday handing out toys, clothes and coffee to military moms and dads at the new Armed Forces Reserve Center.

Carol McDade of Fort Smith helped her boyfriend pick out toys, pajamas and a new bedding comforter for his daughter. A large, open room at the center was packed with tables full of toys and stocking stuffers, along with volunteers to help tote gifts to the car.

“It can be difficult to buy presents these days,” McDade said. “This helps a lot.”

This is the first year Operation Homefront as extended its annual “Secret Santa Workshop” into Arkansas. It held a workshop in Little Rock earlier this month. In all, the program will provide extra toys for about 1,200 children, said Carol Herrick, executive director of Operation Homefront for Oklahoma and Arkansas. In its first year in Bentonville, the workshop gave a merry Christmas to 42 children.

“It’s been a huge success,” Herrick said. “We only expect those numbers to go up.”

The group reaches out to active duty, National Guard and reserve soldiers who are rank E-6 and below. The E-6 rank equates to a staff sergeant in the Army. Pay is based on rank and number of years served, but most active duty staff sergeants and below would make about $2,500 a month or less in basic pay.

“We know that Christmas is one of the times that military families struggle financially,” Herrick said. “This isn’t meant to replace a Christmas, but to augment what they are buying.”

In addition to toys for the children, military families also get a $25 gift card to go toward Christmas dinner. The event is sponsored through a grant from Verizon Wireless and donations from Walmart and other area businesses, Herrick said.

“We have had great sponsorship and community donors,” she said.

The group reached out to military families through its Facebook page, through local family readiness groups and through soldiers’ unit command, Herrick said.

Operation Homefront was formed in 2002 to support the families of deployed soldiers after 9/11. Since that time, it has met more than 400,000 needs for military families, according to its fact sheet.

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