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Thank you for joining us for this issue of Marine Parents News. If this is your first time receiving the newsletter, welcome aboard, we're excited for you to be here!
Two organizations recently awarded us with separate $500 checks. Learn more in our first article.
To see what else is new with the organization or to learn more about the Marine Corps, check out the rest of our articles. We hope you enjoy!
Thank you for joining us and especially for your continued support of our brave men and women in uniform.
Semper Fi Marine Families!
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Marine Parents Receives $500 Grant, Donation
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank two organizations for their recent generosity toward MarineParents.com.
The first organization, the Community Foundation of Collier County (Florida), awarded us with a $500 grant on December 3 on behalf of the Elizabeth & Frank Odell Family Fund.
The second organization, the Mid-Missouri chapter of the Military Officers Association, awarded us with a $500 donation on December 13 in recognition of our organization's service on behalf of our men and women in uniform.
As a non-profit, grants and donations are vital to our success as an organization, and we're grateful to
the Community Foundation of Collier County and the Mid-Missouri chapter of the Military Officers Association for their generosity. We look forward to putting this money to good use for our Marines this holiday season!
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Marine Parents Volunteers Donate to Toys for Tots
Ever since MarineParents.com launched it's official Facebook groups earlier this year, hundreds of people from around the country have come together to provide support to one another as they've found a Place to Connect & Share®. This holiday season, many of our Facebook volunteers have taken their support beyond the internet to a local level by donating to and promoting "Toys for Tots" drives in their local communities.
Our Director of Facebook Groups, Teresita Reynolds, had the following to say about the Toys for Tots drives:
"Good evening holly jolly Marine Parents volunteers!
This is the first Marine Parents Facebook Christmas season! It's a year where I can look back and count so many blessings--that would be all of you!
There are so many 'new' Christmas traditions that I have as a mother of a Marine. Although Toys for Tots has been around [since] before I was born and I grew up seeing the collection boxes all around town, it has never meant so much as it does now! I honestly can't remember if I had ever given a new, unwrapped toy in the past. But you better believe it's all different now! Toys for Tots is a new Christmas tradition that will be here to stay!
You all are a fine example of generous givers! As I have said [before], you make a difference! You also inspire those around you, as you inspire me!"
*Image info:
-Kimberly Davison's (2nd Battalion Leader) daughter's 4H group collected Toys for Tots (top).
-Teresita Reynolds (Facebook Groups Manager) dropping off toys in Pennsylvania (left).
-Marianne Tullis (Fox Co. Group Guide) dropping off toys in Oklahoma (right).
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Marine Corps Re-enlistment Opportunities to Increase in 2016
The end of 2015 will mark the end of the Marine Corps draw-down, which will, in turn, increase re-enlistment opportunities for Marines in 2016.
A
ccording to Marine Corps Manpower Reserve Affairs spokeswoman Yvonne Carlock, this is good news for Marines who want to stay in the Corps.
“We will continue to retain Marines who want to stay in the Corps,” Carlock said. “There are and will be opportunities for Marines to re-enlist, [and] planners actually anticipate greater re-enlistment opportunities.”
Click here to learn more....
*Image info:
Col. David Maxwell conducts Master Sgt. Anthony Forbes’s re-enlistment ceremony July 3, 2013, on Marine Corps Base Quantico. First-term Forbes has been serving as a Marine for almost 25 years. (USMC photo by Pfc. Samuel Ellis)
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Recovering Warriors Need Your Help This Holiday Season
The services provided by MarineParents.com's Warrior Support Team (WST) cost around $6,000 each month, and we need your help ensuring those services continue. So far, the Marine Parents family has come together and donated almost $3,000 to the WST this holiday season.
We truly appreciate your kindness and generosity toward those who have sacrificed so much on our behalf, but we're only halfway to our $6,000 goal. We know that with your continued support, we can reach it in no time!
There are 20,225 members in our Official MarineParents.com Recruit and What's After Boot Facebook Groups. If each of our Facebook group members
donated $1 today, that would pay for the services provided by the Warrior Support Team for more than three months.
Our MarineParents Facebook page has 14,664 "likes". If each of our fans
donated $2 today
, that would pay for the services provided by the Warrior Support Team for almost five months.
We have over 52,000 newsletter contacts. If each of the people on our mailing list
donated $5 today, that would pay for the services provided by the Warrior Support Team for more than three and a half years.
With the season of giving upon us, it's more crucial than ever that we, the Marine Parents family, come together to show our Marines that America supports them and has their backs this holiday season!
Click here to donate today!
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The EGA Shop has all of the Marine Corps-themed holiday gifts you need this season! Your purchase at the EGA Shop makes what we do in our outreach programs possible, because 80% of our income comes from store sales, while only 20% comes from grants, donations, and fundraising. Shop where every purchase supports our troops,
EGAshop.com!
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Volunteer Spotlight: Peggy Densford
Here at Marine Parents, nothing we do would be possible without our amazing volunteers across the country. Our volunteers truly are the backbone of our organization, and we'd like to take this opportunity to recognize the efforts of one individual in particular.
This week's featured volunteer is a proud mother of two Marines from Maryland -- Peggy Densford.
Peggy has been donating her time to Marine Parents with her husband for more than a decade, since she and her husband first discovered our organization in 2004 while their older son was deployed to Iraq. According to Peggy, she and her husband were frightened, and volunteering with what was then the Purple Heart Family Support program (now the Warrior Support Team) was "comforting," as it provided them with the opportunity to give back to our troops.
We'd like to offer a heartfelt "thank you" to Peggy and all of our other amazing volunteers around the country. None of what we do as an organization would be possible without your unwavering support of our men and women in uniform. Your efforts on our behalf are truly appreciated.
*Image info: Marine Parents volunteer Peggy Densford
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Chattanooga Marines, Sailor, to Receive Purple Heart Medals
According to a statement from Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, the Department of the Navy will posthumously award Purple Heart
medals to four Marines and a sailor killed during a July 16 terror attack at the Navy Operational Support Center Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Another Marine wounded in the shooting will also be awarded the Purple Heart
.
"Following an extensive investigation, the FBI and NCIS have determined that this attack was inspired by a foreign terrorist group, the final criteria required for the awarding of the Purple Heart to this sailor and these Marines," Mabus said in his statement. "This determination allows the Department of the Navy to move forward immediately with the award of the Purple Heart to the families of the five heroes who were victims of this terrorist attack, as well as to the surviving hero."
Click here to read more...
*Image info:
Battle crosses are mounted on stage at the Mckenzie Arena at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Aug. 15, 2015. The battle crosses are symbolic replacements for crosses for service members who have fallen in the line of duty. Four Marines and one sailor died during a shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, July 16, 2015. (Photo by
Sgt. Terry Brady)
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Of course, the
EGA Shop
is the #1 place to shop for all of your Marine Corps clothing, decor, and accessory needs, because 100% of the proceeds benefit the outreach programs of
MarineParents.com, Inc.
But...for those non-USMC gifts this season, Amazon is a great place to shop and STILL SUPPORT our outreach programs. When you shop, Amazon gives, but be sure to begin shopping by following our charity link first:
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/20-2294408
Thank you so much for supporting our troops!
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This Week in Marine Corps History: Marines Provide Security for Astronauts
Forty-three years ago this week, on December 19, 1972, the Marine detachment of the
USS Ticonderoga provided shipboard security for three U.S. astronauts, Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, Harrison Schmitt, and their Apollo-17 space capsule. The astronauts had successfully completed a (then) record lunar stay of more than 75 hours.
Click here to read more...
*Image info:
The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga moored at a pier, January 1962.
(U.S. Navy photo)
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This Week in Marine Corps History: Marine Security Guard Program
Sixty-seven years ago this week, on December 15, 1948, then-Secretary of the Navy John L. Sullivan signed
a "Memorandum of Agreement" with the State Department. This memorandum laid the groundwork for the establishment of the modern Marine Security Guard program at U.S. embassies throughout the world.
*Image info:
The Marine Security Detachment in Moscow. October 7, 2015.
(Marine Corps photo by MCESG USMC.)
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