Operation Warmheart, helping all year long

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Hamp Lee
  • 17th Security Forces Squadron First Sergeant
Although Operation Warmheart is mostly known for its Thanksgiving and Christmas collections at the Commissary, there's much more to this great program.

Operation Warmheart is a year-long program that operates in three capacities: facilitate donations, distributions throughout the year and the holiday donation and distribution season.

The first, facilitate donations, are efforts to accrue financial and material donations as well as other contributions such as clothing, furniture and gifts. These donations and contributions come from military members and the local San Angelo community.

The second, distributions throughout the year, is a dissemination of gifts, monetary loans, grants and random acts of kindness.

Finally, the holiday donation and distribution season, culminates each Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday time of year through a partnership with the Goodfellow Commissary. Beginning the first Saturday in November to the last Saturday before Christmas, weekly donations of turkeys, hams, other food items and financial donations are collected; these donations are then redistributed to Team Goodfellow military and civilian families during the holidays.

Through generous donations made by Goodfellow and the San Angelo community, Operation Warmheart has collected more than $18,000 in monetary donations. We received $5,000 in clothing donations for the Goodfellow Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines Place. SAMS Place allows junior service members and their families to shop for free clothing, furniture and other items. We also issued $2,000 in toiletries to local nonprofit charities and received $10,000 in Commissary food items, which provided 431 meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The success of Operation Warmheart is a direct reflection of the warm hearts of Team Goodfellow and the San Angelo community. We are truly thankful for the great year Operation Warmheart has seen and we look forward to helping many more military members and families in 2013.

For more information on any of the Operation Warmheart programs and activities, please contact your unit first sergeant.