Red Cross Spreads Holiday Cheer at Walter Reed Army Hospital
Monday, December 22, 2008 —
Holiday cards lay on crisp hospital sheets. Santa delivers gifts and, with a ho-ho-ho, pulls his bulging sleigh on to the next bed. Voices of carolers, dressed in Red Cross red, fill the ward with harmony.
The Red Cross is at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, handing out Holiday Cards for Heroes, gifts and hope for the New Year. Because so many of the patients are unable to shop, the gifts include items for those hospitalized, and also a variety of items they can give as gifts to their loved ones.
Volunteers visit the Orthopedic Unit treating those wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The metal in new prosthetics shines as brightly as the tin foil stars on the doors. A physician tells us the ward has eight soldiers, the lowest number in years.
We wait for the carolers to finish the last verse of Frosty the Snowman. A woman in the hall turns to us and strikes up a conversation. We learn her son is one of the eight unable to go home for Christmas.
The mother says she is tired and never thought she could feel so old. She also says she is grateful. Grateful her son is alive. Grateful for the people who remembered him and his colleagues with so many cards. Grateful for the American Red Cross. “Thank you all for everything you do,” she says as we exchange Christmas hugs.
Red Crossers go through the hospital ward-by-ward, room-by-room. They visit all the patients—wounded warriors, retirees, dependents, veterans. Red Crossers visit the Pediatric Unit, the Psychiatric Unit, all the floors. There is holiday cheer for everyone; no one is forgotten.
Back at the Red Cross Station, just off the bustling lobby, assistant station manager Katherine Jones sums up for all of us what it is like to convey holiday greetings and the appreciation of the American people to patients at Walter Reed. “There is nothing in the world like serving at a military treatment facility,” she says, “I am truly blessed to be here.”
About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit www.redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org.
