The annual Holiday for Heroes campaign is a local initiative started over 11 years ago by Red Cross volunteer Helga Schoennagel to care for and honor our South Florida service members and veterans. Each holiday season, the Red Cross of South Florida hosts the initiative that provides the community with an opportunity to donate items for care packages to military members and local area veterans in hospitals or nursing homes for the holidays. These items are placed inside a holiday stocking hand-sewn by Helga's team of volunteers.
The Red Cross of South Florida, together with lead partner Arthrex, Inc., assembled and delivered these stuffed holiday stockings for military members and local area veterans who are away from their families during the holidays. This year, over 1,000 stockings were packaged and shipped to our troops overseas along with handmade cards with messages of gratitude.
Angela Malizia, a Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces volunteer who recently arrived at a military installation in Poland, wrote to tell us, "Thanks to your generosity and contribution we are going to be able to bring smiles to hundreds of service members this Christmas. Your spirit and that of your team have made its way to Poland to warm many service members' hearts!"
South Florida Regional Service to the Armed Forces and International Services Director, Jaime Cruz, is a champion for the cause, having once been on the receiving end of the Holiday for Heroes campaign. While serving in the U.S Navy, Jaime received a care package and knows what it means to be away from family during the holidays. To Jaime, Holiday for Heroes is about "humanity, universality and alleviating the suffering of our troops away from home. There are thousands of troops overseas and veterans here at home who cherish a small gift of appreciation. Simply saying thank you for your service is a beautiful way of honoring our service members, but a holiday gift will put a smile on all those we reach each year."
In light of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, for the second year, care package items were purchased via an online registry and shipped directly to the Red Cross. According to Jaime, "The campaign did not stop, but it changed how to collect items and how to assemble everything to be sent overseas. We changed the way of accomplishing our mission but never stopped our goal."
To learn more about how the Red Cross serves members of the military, veterans and their families, visit redcross.org/SAF.
Written by Stephanie Wesseling, American Red Cross Public Affairs