Volunteers like Patti Smith, the executive director of Central Illinois Proud Families of Marines, also run grassroots PR campaigns to remind the community that even though the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are unpleasant, they’re not over. “There are still many of our young men and women serving in harm’s way to defend the freedom that we enjoy every day,” she says. “We need to understand that support for them is going to be long-term.
“That’s not just for our troops. That’s for our wounded. That’s for our veterans. That’s for our families who have sacrificed a young one for our freedom.”
In 2004, Smith’s two sons, Jesse and Josey, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps within six months of each other. Smith started out as a supportive “Marine mom” and began meeting other Marine parents.
She formed CIPFM in Peoria as a support group for families with serving sons and daughters.
Her 23-year-old son Josey was deployed to Ramadi, Iraq to serve his first tour of duty in December 2005. Smith didn’t like the idea of receiving Christmas presents while her son lived and worked in a war zone, so she and her husband instead launched a plan to outfit Josey and his 40-member platoon with gifts. The Smiths collected items and stored them in their garage until they had enough presents for 200 service members.
Since then, Smith says, donations to “Operation Santa” have increased annually by 100 percent. In 2006 CIPFM sent 10,000 gift-filled stockings to troops overseas, and in 2007, the organization sent more than 23,000. Last year’s total — 35,000 stockings — astounded Smith.
“We went from a support group to this project that just took over,” she says. “We got so many volunteers who wanted to do more. It was no longer just Marine parents, but everyone.”
Girl Scouts, church groups, schoolchildren, nursing home residents and volunteers from across Illinois and other various states create stockings year-round for Operation Santa. These volunteers join with other community organizations to collect travelsized hot cocoa and cold drink packets, instant soup, granola bars, toothpaste and toothbrushes.
Jeanne Lee, a Springfield CIPFM volunteer, sews stockings for Operation Santa and solicits help from women in local chapters of the Home and Community Education Association. She spends nearly 100 hours of her time on the project (including a trip to Peoria for the stocking sewing kickoff day in October), but wants to increase her recruiting efforts in the capital city. “My dad was a Pearl Harbor survivor,” Lee says. “My brother is a Vietnam veteran.
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