It truly begins to feel like Christmas when SOWW visits our Willing Warriors + Families at Walter Reed at Bethesda for our Annual Willing Warrior Gift-Giving.
This year, the Warriors + Their Families lined up for hours all the way down the lengthy hall to collect their gift cards and plush sherpa blankets from SOWW and our partners Park Valley Church + Intelligent Decisions. We were joined this year by iPods For Wounded Veterans, one of our favorite nonprofits!
Santa also made an appearance and waited at the end of the line to hand out goodies like candy canes and hand-knit scarves.
(And pose for pictures.)
We feel so fortunate that Walter Reed continues to open its doors to us, year after year, for these special visits. We could not do this without the support and partnership of our community of SOWWers who are so faithful to donate for this annual event. We wish all of you could be there with us each time to see the appreciation on the faces of these Warriors, their spouses, parents, siblings and children when we take our little bit of Christmas cheer into their midst.
We hope we these photos give you a taste of how the day felt.
Awww . . .
One of the service dogs was looking shy, but festive, in her colorful Christmas sweater.
We came away from the weekend with 12 pages of signatures of Warrior Families who are hoping to stay at The Bull Run Warrior Retreat in the near future. It further inspired us to "press on towards the goal" and work hard to complete all the retreat house renovations as soon as possible. These families desperately need what we can soon provide -- short respite stays in a "home away from home" environment.
SOWW VP John Dominick (below) shares both gratitude and thanks with one of our
Willing Warriors.
By the end of the day, we had exhausted our supply of
gifts, shook many hands, and said many thank yous.
But, as always, we received far more than we
gave.
To all you SOWWers out there who made this possible once again:
Many, many thanks and many blessings to you!
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