Thank You Letters
I want to thank all the generous donors that helped my family last year with the backpacks. We had just moved out here from California and my 3 grade school children didn't have any type of school supplies. The kids received so much in their backpacks that it lasted all year for them. Even with school projects they had to do at home. I have a 13 year old son who is in middle school and he was able to use everything he received as well as my 2 daughters 11 yr and 8 yrs. They loved going through all the stuff, it was like Christmas to them. Every thing they received was age appropriate and exactly what they needed. Thank you so much for helping our family. We truely do appreciate it. I love this program because I have 4 children and school supplies are very costly with that many children. If it weren't for this program I do not believe my children would have had the confidence to succeed due to lack of materials. Thank again and I look forward to participating again this year.
~Florida USMC Spouse
Words cannot begin to express my appreciation and gratitude for your assistance in helping my family get the roof repaired on our home. Your aid came just in time as our roof started leaking in multiple places. Your help was a great blessing to my family while I was deployed. Thank you for taking care of my family while I was away and not able to, due to my mission requirements. Your thoughtfulness will never be forgotten. Thank you again.
~Florida Army National Guard SGT
I recently received a pair of running shoes provided by your organization. I would like to thank Mizuno and all the people at Operation Homefront-Florida for this and all the many things they do for the troops. Please keep up the wonderful work you are doing. We all appreciate it.
~ TSgt in Tampa area
Dear Operation Homefront-Florida volunteer,
I just wanted to thank you for all the time you
put into getting the backpacks together. My boys loved them and our family
truly appreciated it!!
-Florida Military Family
Once again THANK YOU & your organization for
everything you have done for me!! It
makes me feel so much better to know that there are so many people out there
that do care about military people like myself.
You know, when I was in Iraq & I was asked by reporters or civilians
or after I returned, "Do you think we should be in Iraq?, Do you think
it's all about the oil?, Do you think we should stay?", I always answered
with the same quote which was "I am a United States soldier sent here to
do a job just like any person back home, I do the job to the best of my ability
whether I think it's right or wrong does not matter. What matters is that it's my job & I do
it & I get the added satisfaction & honor of knowing that I have served
my country."
The bonus for my generation is that we have so much more
support from organizations like Operation Homefront to turn to in our times of need.
Organizations that understand that we do not choose the
situation that we are at times, it's just difficult adjusting back to this
world after being in that world & being severely injured in the
process. It's depressing at first, but
between social networking with my volunteering with Wounded Warrior Project,
Ride2Recovery, board member of Fins for Limbs, and Commander of Military Order
of the Purple Heart & being able to get financial assistance when I am in
dire need from Operation Homefront-Florida, it REALLY helps me get through.
I can't even explain the appreciation that I have for
what you have done for me just when I was starting to break down again.
I hope to meet you someday, but, until then, thank you
& God Bless!!
Grateful Operation Homefront-Florida Client
I am not sure where to begin. I just wanted to write and
thank you and everyone that was involved in helping us. Helping with our
utilities and rent is more helpful and way above anything I imagined. I have
never known such kindness from people I do not know. Even our families would
not help us. This deployment has been so difficult on all of us. I am in such
hopes I can now get us to a point so I do not have to live paycheck to paycheck.
I look forward to being able to help and donate back next
year. Thank you all again and may God Bless each one of you!
Blessings,
Operation Homefront-Florida Client and family
Dear Sir,
I am so very thankful for your donation to us. I recently have returned from a deployment. We have been renting a furnished home. We will be moving from this home into a place that is unfurnished. The furniture received is an excellent start for us to furnish our new place. We are preparing for the future because my income will decrease now that I am off of deployment. We are in the process of continuing to look for antyhing to furnish our new residence and looking for a second vehicle. So we have a lot of preparationts to do. But I am so thankful for you being a blessing to us. And I am so sorry under the circumstances. Our prayers will be with you. I am a family of one wife, four girls and one son. We all say thank you so much.
~Army National Guard Servicemember
Dear Operation Homefront-Florida
I would like to take the time to thank you for this wonderful opportunity with the Operation Homefront village. It has been a huge blessing and was exactly what our family needed. Thank you for helping me get into the village and for giving me the courage to! God bless you.
~Grateful Client
Sir, I just wanted to send my thanks for the wonderful tournament
held at Fox Hollow on the 16th. Everything was wonderful and just
makes me even more proud to have served in the Air Force for the past 14 years
and will continue to serve until retirement. But, to know that there are
organizations out there to help military/wounded and their families. I believe
one thing people do forget about the families at home while we are gone and
your organization cares. I know I couldn’t be anywhere in this military without
the loving support and my wife and children. So, again it was a pleasure to
play Fox Hollow and be apart and raise money for an extremely worthwhile cause.
Cheers,
TSgt, USAF
Written by a US Service member, currently stationed in Afghanistan
Among the terrible things I have seen and the mental stress this deployment has brought me, a few shining lights of hope have come through the fog of war. What I speak of are the wonderful men and women who take the time to send their love and support to people they have never met. They do this for no other reason than to show that they have heart. These wonderful people bring smiles into not just my life, but to most of the 70,000 troops in Afghanistan today.
We don't ask for much. I myself tell my own wife that she sends me too many packages.
We think of home all the time and the people we love. We spend every minute of every day wishing we were home amongst our loved ones. We wait for hours just to talk to our families for minutes. I have been on four deployments now, and by far this is the hardest on me. Not because I'm exposed to enemy fire. Not because I'm struggling physically. I've been in those situations and they do not even come close to the pain I feel from being away from my wife.
The only respite I get from the violence and horrors of war are the heartwarming letters and gifts that I receive from not only my family, but from total strangers who reach out and make our lives just a little bit less miserable. They have a special gift. That gift is empathy. They look at things from our perspective and react the only way they know how. They show us that America is still the best place in the world to live. They show us that our country will support us, no matter what. This was not always the case in our history. I feel for the Vietnam veterans who came home to be spit on by the very people they swore to protect with their lives. If they had the same support that my generation has, many of them would have had an easier adjustment to civilian life. In my time in the military, I have known nothing but a nation at war. I have been on the receiving end of enemy fire many times and have been decorated by my nation for the bravery I've shown on the battlefield. In my heart, I know that those of you that take the time to make just a little bit of difference in our lives, you are the heroes.
Dear Operation Homefront-Florida,
I have a family that has been hard-hit over the last year with deployment, unemployment and domestic violence. They were so thrilled by the generosity of Operation Homefront for their Christmas goodies. The food was super, but the game added a special touch that was needed for family activities. Thank you so much for all you and the volunteers of Operation Homefront did to assist this family and all the other families you have helped also!
Thank you,
A Grateful Florida Client
Thank you very much, you have blessed us a lot. I don't know how to repay you all, but we really appreciate it. Please let us know if there is anything we can do in the future for Operation Homefront.
A Wounded Warrior Family
Dear Operation Homefront Florida:
My family and would like to thank you and your organization for the help that you provided for us.
Without your help, we would not have been able to purchase much-needed groceries and necessities as well as gas for our vehicles so that my wife can continue to look for work and we can get our kids to and from school. Also, we would have never been able to make our car payment or insurance payment, which would have also hindered us from doing either if we would have lost the car or the insurance.
Your organization is wonderful, and I hope that someday we will be able to give back to the organization so that another family in need will be able to benefit from it. God bless everyone that is involved with Operation Homefront.
A Grateful Florida Family