Madison Holiday Cheer Brigade marches into holiday season
The City of Madison in conjunction with the local National Guard and Army Reserve is asking for support to make this holiday season a happy one for soldiers and their families.
Last year, the Holiday Cheer Brigade made an impact by collecting more than $12,000 in money and gifts for 12 military families in the Tennessee Valley.
Many families are in need this holiday season. Below is a list of some of those military families and their specific situations. Their names of been changed in order to protect their privacy.
Soldier Alpha is a motivated and dedicated soldier. He is a loving husband and proud soon-to-be father of his first child due Dec. 29.
His wife is a full-time student working on a nursing degree to better the life of her family. Expecting their first child so early in their brief marriage is a trying situation for this relatively young family. But, they seize every opportunity to ask for prayers and advice from others. Soldier A works a full-time job, but it pays minimum wage; and he does odd jobs to make ends meet. He sacrifices greatly being away from home for such an extended portion of the day. But through it all, he looks forward to the birth of his first child and the day when he can provide for his family in a manner that he feels a husband and a father should.
Soldier Bravo is the single mother of 3-year-old twin boys. She is currently employed full time, but with the extremely high cost of childcare for two small children, she struggles to provide for her children. Soldier B is a hard working young woman who takes every chance possible to help out others around her. She is responsible and regularly seeks work for the holidays to be able to provide a Christmas for her boys, but faces great adversities in finding extra work outside her normal work hours because the childcare cost outweighs the pay she receives. This Soldier remains positive, however, saying that things could always be worse, at least her boys are healthy and happy.
Soldier Delta is a single mom with a newborn baby boy. Both mom and baby son are at home now doing well. Due to the pregnancy, Solider D was unable to complete her advanced skill identification training and therefore, unable to collect the bonus money from the Army Reserve until the training is completed.
She had hoped to use the bonus money to provide for her and her newborn until she is able to return to work. Consequently, she is experiencing a financial shortfall and is having difficulty making ends meet.
Soldier Echo and his wife are mourning the loss of a pair of newborn twins shortly after their birth. His wife is slowly recovering, both physically and mentally.
Soldier E and his wife have been unable to work during their loss and are currently dealing with funeral arrangements. They have no income. Funeral arrangements and related costs have depleted their savings and taken a toll on the family budget. The family would like some assistance to make it through their financial crisis and try to provide a nice Christmas for their 13-year-old daughter.
Soldier Xray is a hardworking and dedicated husband and father of two school aged children, girl 15 and boy 6. Having recently returned from a deployment, he was faced with many obstacles. His mother had become ill, unable to care for herself and needing to be relocated, and his sister who has two school aged children, girl 16 and boy 8, of her own lost her job. With no regard to his financial situation, he stepped up and undertook a tremendous responsibility by moving his mother and accepting his sister’s family into his household and caring for them as he does his own wife and kids. At a time when he should be the happiest, returning home after a long deployment, and during the holidays, he is greatly overwhelmed with little to look forward to offering the children.
Appropriate gifts, gift cards and cash are all appreciated. Contributions can be made to a particular family or families, or can be undesignated. Any check donations should be made payable to the City of Madison. The City aggregates the money for each family and issues a City check to them.
Let’s show these military families our community spirit and make sure they will always remember the 2010 holiday season as one filled with joy and hope for the New Year.
Non-monetary gifts can be taken to Dublin Park Recreation Center located at 8324 Old Madison Pike in Madison. Financial contributions and other monetary gifts will be collected at Madison City Hall located at 100 Hughes Road.
Donations will be accepted now through Dec. 15. A team will then wrap and deliver all of the gifts to the families on Friday, Dec. 17.
For more information on any of the families or to volunteer to help wrap presents, please call the Mayor’s Office at (256) 772-5603.
