Cross-Country Valentine’s Day Surprises for Injured Troops

When Freedom Alliance connected with sororities this Valentine’s Day, we brought appreciation and a bit of “sugar” to injured troops across the country.

Chocolate and roses were distributed by charming coeds at Naval Medical Center San Diego; the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Carson, Colorado; Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas; and Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

In California, eleven students from San Diego State University’s Gama Phi Beta arranged bouquets of roses and boxes of chocolates for the 75 Marines recovering from injuries at the Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park. These dedicated young women can’t wait to volunteer with Freedom Alliance again next Valentine’s Day, if not sooner.

On the opposite coast, Freedom Alliance team members met up with three students from George Washington University’s PiPhi chapter. Armed with flowers and sweets, the PiPhi sisters intercepted over 80 mothers, wives, girlfriends, and service members at Walter Reed with their gifts and gratitude.

Ten young women from the Phi Sigma Sigma Iota Kappa chapter of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, trudged through snow to reach Fort Carson. The incoming soldiers to the Warrior Transition Battalion met at headquarters for orientation only to have their meeting converged upon by girls with roses and treats. By the end of Valentine’s Day, 125 bouquets, chocolate boxes, and thank-you’s had been delivered to soldiers and their families.

The following day, the celebration spread to Texas. Freedom Alliance scholarship recipient Courtney Horrigan teamed up with University of Texas Delta Xi Nu sisters to hand 80 boxes of chocolates and 250 roses to wounded troops at Brooke Army Medical Center.

Freedom Alliance president Tom Kilgannon, who was at Walter Reed on Valentine’s Day, said this of the activity: “We wanted to provide a small break in their routine to remind our combat veterans in treatment and in transition around the country how very special they are to us and to our nation.”