This past Christmas season MarineParents.com's Warrior Support Team (WST) on the East coast continued the tradition of giving holiday gifts to all of the Marines at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. Gifts were given to inpatients, outpatients, and their spouses--thirty-one in all. Staff at our corporate office in Columbia, Missouri, assembled gift boxes that included a Kindle Fire for each adult, a Christmas ornament, holiday cards, and socks. Two of our WST East volunteers, Mary Ann Schilling and Susan Kristol, put these boxes in festive gift bags and added an assortment of cookies, popcorn, nuts, snacks, and candy. On December 19, the volunteers delivered them to the Family Support Coordinator at the Marine Liaison Office at Walter Reed. Our volunteers were able to see a few gift bags being delivered in person as Marines stopped by, one with a spouse, another with his father accompanying him. They were extremely grateful.
On the west coast, our Warrior Support Team volunteers decided to do something a bit different for the wounded and recovering warriors this year. Instead of Christmas gifts, MarineParents.com offered to pay for small day trips for the warriors in celebration of the 242nd Marine Corps Birthday. The warriors got to choose their trip and bring a guest. The trip options included:
- Dinner and a Movie: The Justice League
- Whale Watching: San Diego Bay
- The Ranch, LIVE: a netflix original with Ashton Kutcher
MarineParents paid for 30 active duty members and 14 of their guests to attend these events. Thank you to our Warrior Support Team volunteers for making this happen.
These gifts and trips were donated by MarineParents.com and are made possible by the generosity of donors to the Warrior Support Team. If you would like to make a donation,
click here.