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Blackanthem Military News
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Last Updated:
Jan 5, 2009 - 8:24:33 PM |
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Blackanthem Military News
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island - Operation Holiday Cheer is now in it's seventh year. Led by Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts, the initiative sends out hundreds of care packages to soldiers stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere during the holidays.
Operation Holiday Cheer is an undertaking that allows community and corporate sponsors, to join with the Rhode Island National Guard and Rhode Island's Military Family Relief Fund, in providing holiday cheer to our service members stationed overseas.
As all of us are well aware, the holiday season is a time for joy, a time for peace, a time for giving thanks for the gifts that we have been given. During this wonderful season, many of us are asked to make sacrifices in order for our nation's citizens to truly enjoy a peaceful holiday season. For Rhode Island's brave men and women serving abroad and for their families sacrificing here at home, the holidays may take on a very different meaning. It can be a lonely time and it can be an anxious time for the men and women, serving in combat and for the relatives and friends back home supporting those brave loved ones serving in combat.
To many of the men and women, serving their country in a dangerous place, something from home can certainly raise one's spirits and ensure that they are in the hearts and minds of the people that they are sacrificing for. Operation Holiday Cheer is a wonderful way of telling our brave warriors overseas that they are not forgotten. Operation Holiday Cheer gives Rhode Island residents and businesses a chance to give back to the troops, serving abroad.
Each service member is sent a care package containing many home town favorites such as Dunkin Donuts Coffee and Dells Lemonade, the ProJo and many other items that they can not purchase in whatever foreign land they are stationed in.
All the items are donated and are well appreciated by all, a fact that I can certainly attest to. I served in Baghdad, Iraq last year. The holidays are certainly not the same there as they are here and no matter how hard people try to make everything seem more like home the less like home the situation feels.
All the packages are addressed to individual service members, a personal touch that is truly appreciated, and the contents of each package certainly made each Rhode Islander feel closer to home.
This past Saturday, Lt. Governor Roberts, along with volunteers from many local organizations, spent their morning filling these packages of joy for the troops overseas. The packing and sealing, of each individual package, took place at the North Main Street Armory. Among the many volunteers on hand was Retired Sgt 1st Class, Gary Rehak. Mr. Rehak was a member of the Rhode Island National Guard for over thirty-four years and today he still has close ties with present and former members. As a member of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association he enjoys donating his time to a group of individuals he spent most of his life mentoring and educating.
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