Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, North Korea – place names in the news every day. For over 1,000,000 American families, those place names are attached to a loved one serving in America’s military. Those remote places are far more than news items, blogs or debates in Congress. They are the temporary, dangerous residence of their husband, wife, child, niece, nephew, cousin or friend.
Citizen Support for America’s Military, or Citizen SAM, based in Peoria, Illinois, is one of the largest all-volunteer organizations in the country to channel items to America’s military men, women and canine’s. Operation Santa is one of its key projects.
Operation Santa has sent over 70,000 Christmas stockings and Hanukkah bags to the troops since 2004. The hundreds of service dogs living in warring areas are not left out with each receiving a special holiday gift.
100% of funds collected by Citizen SAM, a registered non-profit corporation, for its many projects go directly to the support of those sent to protect our freedoms. Volunteers sew, knit, quilt, crochet, collect the donated contents to be sent, pack and prepare to mail the cases and cases of holiday presents.
The distribution channels overseas are already in place and Citizen SAM has regular communication with military officials prepared to get the Operation Santa holiday goodies into the hands of the troops for which they are intended. This has worked perfectly, quietly and with little fanfare for 5 years due to the efforts of regular ordinary American’s.
Until this year and crisis of the economy. Sending one case of 15 stockings costs $30 to get it overseas and into the proper hands for distribution. Do the math. This year, Operation Santa needs $100,000 for postage. Not so someone can keep a job, not for rent or overhead, but so our military troops can receive a message from us that we care about them – not about the politics that caused them to be away from home and family for the holidays.
Read about Citizen Sam and its many programs that provide for needs of our overseas troops at www.citizensam.org and, especially, about Operation Santa at www.operationsanta.info . Just American citizen volunteers, just ordinary people, can make such a difference this coming holiday season.
It’s Christmas now if we want to get the packages sent in November. If you want to help, send a check, volunteer at a local Citizen SAM sponsored event, send items for inclusion in the stockings and bags (listed on Web site) and tell your friends, your church, your club or organization. Operation Santa, P.O. Box 10565, Peoria, IL 61612. Citizen SAM can provide a speaker for your group based on volunteer availably. For more information, contact Patti Rios-Smith at 309-231-5090.
