Home for the Holidays
The election is behind us, but we are still a country at war. As the wife of an active duty service member, I beseech you all, from both sides of this red and blue country, to support our military personnel who so bravely perform their duties regardless of their political persuasion, personal beliefs, or private hardships.
I know many of you have yellow magnets on your vehicle that read, “Support Our Troops.” While this is a lovely show of patriotism, I beg you to stop making the magnet moguls richer and instead donate that $5.50 to a Hawai’i based organization I’ve gotten involved with called Home for the Holidays. Started by an extraordinary woman whose husband is, at this precise moment, flying combat helicopters in Iraq, Home for the Holidays is committed to raising money to financially assist our troops with their holiday travel expenses.
In the first week of October, 2,500 members of the Hawai'i National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade were deployed to Fort Bliss, Texas for combat training. They will be given a short holiday break with permission to fly home to Hawaii before going to Fort Polk, Louisiana and then being shipped out to Iraq in February ’05.
Permission to fly home, however, doesn’t translate into the ability to fly home. Many of these troops will simply stay in their barracks, alone during the holidays, because they lack the means with which to get home.
Unlike the National Guard units from mainland states, these Hawai’i troops cannot carpool home or charter a bus. There is no way for them to get home except to fly. Travel dates surrounding Christmas and New Years are considered prime tourist season for the islands and airfare is high – at least $700 round trip. And no, contrary to popular belief, military personnel do not fly free. We pay just like other Americans.
Among those wishing to spend the holidays at home before going to war is a single mother of three who, on measly National Guard pay, is lucky to be making ends meet. There is also a teenager who, prior to shipping out to Texas, had never been off the island of Oahu. And a husband and father that just moved his family from Samoa to Hawaii in July. And 30 others who have signed up for assistance so far.
So my dear friends and family, I ask you, I beg you, to dig deep and give what you can to help us bring these Hawai’i service men and women home to spend the holidays with their families before putting themselves in harm’s way.
Please make checks payable to Home for the Holidays – mailing address: Home for the Holidays, c/o Bank of Hawaii, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive, Kailua, Hawaii 96734.
In addition to monetary donations, you can also donate your accumulated frequent flyer miles. For information on how to do this, email me at heather@peetspiwak.com.
Obviously, the money we collect goes straight into buying airplane tickets so we rely solely on word of mouth advertising and the occasional newspaper article or broadcast story [ http://starbulletin.com/2004/10/25/news/story7.html and http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Nov/08/ln/ln25p.html ]. So, in addition to your donations, I ask that you forward this email to your entire address book so that we can spread the word and get more people involved. We’re on a major time crunch to get the tickets purchased in time.
I have faith in our country and her citizens and I know that we will support our troops, not just with mere lip service, but with self sacrifice and true patriotism. Prove me right.
With Aloha,
Heather
P.S. With my children’s birthdays around the corner and Christmas shortly following, if you are planning to send them a gift, I ask that you instead send what you planned to spend to Home for the Holidays. Then just send a card with a note telling them that is what you did so I can include that in their scrapbooks. I would love for them to look back when they are old enough to understand and know that even at a very young age they too sacrificed to support our troops and honor our country.
I know many of you have yellow magnets on your vehicle that read, “Support Our Troops.” While this is a lovely show of patriotism, I beg you to stop making the magnet moguls richer and instead donate that $5.50 to a Hawai’i based organization I’ve gotten involved with called Home for the Holidays. Started by an extraordinary woman whose husband is, at this precise moment, flying combat helicopters in Iraq, Home for the Holidays is committed to raising money to financially assist our troops with their holiday travel expenses.
In the first week of October, 2,500 members of the Hawai'i National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade were deployed to Fort Bliss, Texas for combat training. They will be given a short holiday break with permission to fly home to Hawaii before going to Fort Polk, Louisiana and then being shipped out to Iraq in February ’05.
Permission to fly home, however, doesn’t translate into the ability to fly home. Many of these troops will simply stay in their barracks, alone during the holidays, because they lack the means with which to get home.
Unlike the National Guard units from mainland states, these Hawai’i troops cannot carpool home or charter a bus. There is no way for them to get home except to fly. Travel dates surrounding Christmas and New Years are considered prime tourist season for the islands and airfare is high – at least $700 round trip. And no, contrary to popular belief, military personnel do not fly free. We pay just like other Americans.
Among those wishing to spend the holidays at home before going to war is a single mother of three who, on measly National Guard pay, is lucky to be making ends meet. There is also a teenager who, prior to shipping out to Texas, had never been off the island of Oahu. And a husband and father that just moved his family from Samoa to Hawaii in July. And 30 others who have signed up for assistance so far.
So my dear friends and family, I ask you, I beg you, to dig deep and give what you can to help us bring these Hawai’i service men and women home to spend the holidays with their families before putting themselves in harm’s way.
Please make checks payable to Home for the Holidays – mailing address: Home for the Holidays, c/o Bank of Hawaii, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive, Kailua, Hawaii 96734.
In addition to monetary donations, you can also donate your accumulated frequent flyer miles. For information on how to do this, email me at heather@peetspiwak.com.
Obviously, the money we collect goes straight into buying airplane tickets so we rely solely on word of mouth advertising and the occasional newspaper article or broadcast story [ http://starbulletin.com/2004/10/25/news/story7.html and http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Nov/08/ln/ln25p.html ]. So, in addition to your donations, I ask that you forward this email to your entire address book so that we can spread the word and get more people involved. We’re on a major time crunch to get the tickets purchased in time.
I have faith in our country and her citizens and I know that we will support our troops, not just with mere lip service, but with self sacrifice and true patriotism. Prove me right.
With Aloha,
Heather
P.S. With my children’s birthdays around the corner and Christmas shortly following, if you are planning to send them a gift, I ask that you instead send what you planned to spend to Home for the Holidays. Then just send a card with a note telling them that is what you did so I can include that in their scrapbooks. I would love for them to look back when they are old enough to understand and know that even at a very young age they too sacrificed to support our troops and honor our country.
posted by The Histrionics of a Fat Housewife at 3:58 AM
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