While our troops are away from their family and friends this holiday season protecting our country, Freedom Alliance is busy showing them that we are a grateful nation by hosting morale building Troop Appreciation Dinners and Events as well as gift drives across the country.
Freedom Alliance treated the Airmen of Hurlburt Field, home of the Air Force Special Operations, to an elegant dinner at the world famous Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Destin, Florida last week. The Airmen in attendance had all just returned home from deployments. The same week Freedom Alliance hosted another dinner for 90 soldiers from B Co. 3-7 Field Artillery in Honolulu, Hawaii.
“I can’t adequately describe the look on those faces when the waiters swarmed into the formal dining room with sizzling plates in hand,” retired Air Force and former Hurlburt field Commander Col. Kim Wintner wrote to Freedom Alliance. “None of these young military invitees had eaten in such a fancy steakhouse before. One of the young men said he had often seen the restaurant ad for filet mignon in the airlines magazine, en route to his deployments. He said he was finally going to eat one of those steaks that had remained in his memory.”
For several years now Freedom Alliance has been hosting Troop Appreciation Dinners to honor America’s troops for their service and sacrifice. For some service members the dinners are the first “thank you” they have received since joining the military. For injured service members a dinner is often the first public outing they attend and can serve as a form of healing for them.
Freedom Alliance’s Troop Appreciation Events are just one component of support. This holiday season we have already shipped thousands of “Gifts from Home” care packages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Freedom Alliance also sponsors lunches, weekend vacations and family fun days, while volunteers all over the country put together local care package drives, golf tournaments, runs, raffles, and bake sales.
“We are there to support them, whether in times of war or times of peace, on holidays and everyday” said Freedom Alliance President Tom Kilgannon.
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