History and Overview
For the last 2 years, our family has had the great pleasure of spending Easter with the sailors and marines from the Great Lakes Naval Training Base. The idea came to my aunt, Bernadette Powers of Follett Library Resources, 2 years ago; shortly after the start of the War in Iraq. At that time, a family member of ours spent the holiday alone with her 2 kids, while her husband, a Ranger in the United States Army, was serving in Iraq and Kuwait. When reality struck that such was the case for thousands of families, my aunt began a massive campaign to give naval recruits a taste of home on Easter.
The first year was a tremendous success. In total, we served between 150-200 sailors (less than we actually expected because of last minute deployments), and the food left over was either brought back to the base for the MPs on duty, or delivered to veterans homeless shelters. Many recruits called home while at Follett, others took walks around the buildings, and others played card games or watched the baseball game on television. Perhaps, though, the highlight of the event was when a sailor mustered up the courage to sing karaoke. The dinner may take a lot of work and preparation, but we knew we did some good when a sailor walked up to one of the volunteers, and got emotional when he thanked her for helping to make their holiday away from home a little easier (many of the sailors from the dinner were deployed overseas shortly after the holiday, and I'm sure the dinner was a way to help them get their minds off of their possible deployment.) Before they left, the servicemen and women as a group gave us a loud H-O-O-A-H! to show their appreciation for the appreciation they were shown.
The second year was a success as well, although it ended an hour earlier than originally planned because of a terminal illness in the family. Nonetheless, the sailors, marines, airmen, and soldiers (we has some from every branch of the military), seemed to have a wonderful time. And who could blame them, right? A day away from a miltary base and its food would make anyone happy:) This last year, we expanded our group to allow entire families of military personnel to the dinner. It seemed to be a great get-away for the kids as well.
Anyway, this next Easter should be a lot of fun. We have received some donations from celebrities such as Tom Selleck, Martina McBride, and Aaron Tippin, to name a few, that we will be distributed to the servicemen and women. These events are tremendous fun, but also provide us with an opportunity to really show America's heroes how much we truly appreciate the service they give to their country.
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