During the holiday season, several local and national charities expand their benevolent programs to ensure that military personnel are recognized this Christmas.  

     Soldiers’ Angels, a nonprofit organization, provides the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and veterans aid and comfort year-round, according to their website, Soldiersangels.org. With over 25 programs within their charity and over 100,000 volunteers, Soldiers’ Angels has 2 special charity events for the holidays. “Wrapped in Holiday Spirit” and “Blankets of Belief” are 2 groups of volunteers who utilize donations to make handmade blankets with inspirational messages on them for the troops. Each blanket is placed in a package along with sweets and Christmas cards.

      Operation Gratitude is another charity that operates with soldiers in mind. September 13 through December 4, this operation conducted “The Wish List.” Citizens chose from a list of items such as winter apparel, WebCams, board games, packets of hot or cold beverages, disposable cameras, iPods, used cell phones, and more and were then able to send those items and only pay a shipping fee.

     In response to the care-packages, soldiers were able to post comments on Operation Gratitude’s website. “I cannot thank you enough for the Operation Gratitude package you all carefully assembled and mailed out to me,” said T.C. Colonel from Camp Cunningham. “It was wonderful to open it up and find all sorts of reminders of home and much need conveniences out here.”As of December 5, the operation sent 595,785 care packages and that number is updated daily.

     This program is one of many to use care packages as a way to give back to soldiers. Marine mom, Susan Bowen, is mother to North Harford Alumni ’04, Edward Bowen, and actively participates in military-oriented charities. This holiday season, she worked directly with the Marine Corps Family Foundation. They then assigned her 75 marines who fight on the front lines to organize Christmas stockings for. The stockings included candy canes, gum, crackers, batteries, and other items. She sent 78 stockings in total and 9 extra boxes with items such as footballs, CD’s, DVD’s, razors, baby wipes, etc. All donations were made by Bowen’s coworkers and friends.

     Some organizations for soldiers get started with numerous amounts of people involved, but like Bowen, Brittany Bergquist was just 13 when the idea for her charity, Cell Phones for Soldiers, commenced only with the assistance of her little brother in 2004. Bergquist was inspired when she heard that approximately 65 percent of soldiers lacked the accessibility to a phone in order to call home during their missions. Since then, Cell Phones for Soldiers has collected more than 7.5 million used and recycled cell phones.

     “We are not only able to help our military men and women,” said Bergquist, “…but also keep toxic wastes out of landfills.” The brother and sister duo to date, has provided soldiers with over 90 million pre-paid calling cards and organized more than 6,000 collection sites across the country. Those looking to donate or to get involved this holiday season can visit Cellphonesforsoldiers.com to learn more.