Heartwarming Holiday Gifts: SOWW Calendars + Mugs Available!

Still holiday shopping?  

SOWW to the rescue!

Serve Our Willing Warriors is offering our first Bull Run Warrior Retreat Calendar 

featuring beautiful seasonal scenes of the retreat property 

(and some smiling faces of volunteers + participants at SOWW events).

Our large 12" x 12" calendar makes a lovely, affordable + practical gift 

and reminds us of the ways in which a community can 

'give back' to our military families.

Below are a few calendar excerpts.

If your loved one already has a calendar, then you may want to consider our 
Bull Run Warrior Retreat Christmas Mug.  

It features a lovely snowy scene of the retreat home with the 

Serve Our Willing Warriors maxim:

  

Because The Will To Serve is a Precious Thing.

 

The mugs come securely packaged in a lovely white + blue box.  

Just add a bow and your gift is ready to give!

So give a gift that 'gives back' to our Wounded, Ill + Injured Warriors & Families!

(Or buy them for yourself!  Or buy for yourself + your gift list!)

The 12" x 12" Bull Run Warrior Retreat 2015 Calendar 
Price:  $20

The Bull Run Warrior Retreat Christmas Mug  

Price:  $20 

Special:  2 Mugs for $30

Email us to purchase + arrange for pick-up for a calendar or  Christmas mug.  

info@willingwarriors.org

 (Please include "calendar purchase" or "mug purchase" in the subject line of your email.)

Thank you!

Happy Holiday Shopping!

Christmas Open House + Benefit Christmas Jazz Concert featuring Prelude!

We know it is a busy month, but we encourage you to take some time to stop and enjoy the season in some very special ways!

First up: A Peaceful Sunday Afternoon!

Join us at Bull Run Warrior Retreat on December 15 from 2 - 4 pm.

Escape the hustle and bustle of shopping and come take a tour of the retreat house + property.

Girl Scouts will be serving hot cider and cookies and we will share our vision of a place of refuge and relaxation for our wounded, ill and injured Warriors + Families.

The property is beautiful and quiet and the front lawn has some big trees filled with clusters of mistletoe - which makes for a romantic stroll!

 

If you are still searching for a special Christmas gift, the remaining Limited Edition Mistletoe Forest Ornaments (made from mistletoe and barberries harvested at the retreat) will be available.

 Finally - Share a classic Christmas event with friends + family!

We are ever-so-excited to announce that Gainesville United Methodist Church is

hosting a benefit concert on behalf of SOWW.

If that wasn't enough - we were thrilled to hear that the guest artists

are Dave Detwiler & Prelude!

Come experience the Christmas classics performed and arranged by the very best!

(I have visions of "It's A Wonderful Life" running through my mind -- this will surely be an "Old School" Christmas Night Out!)

You really don't wanna miss it!

Below is a little more information from Gainesville United Methodist Church.  

 JOIN US FOR AN EVENING OF FUN AND FELLOWSHIP ON
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21ST 

Come make an evening of it with the Saturday Evening Service followed by a potluck dinner and the Benefit Christmas Concert!

  

Beginning at 5:00 p.m.  

Saturday Evening Service & Potluck Dinner 

 Bring your favorite Holiday dish to share! Sign-up sheets will available beginning December 8th.

Beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Benefit Christmas Jazz Concert for  

Serve Our Willing Warriors (SOWW) 

Featuring nationally acclaimed trumpet soloist, Dave Detwiler, the principle trumpet for the National Symphony Orchestra Pops
 and his band, Prelude.

Admission to the concert is a free will donation.  

The net proceeds will be given to Serve Our Willing Warriors (SOWW), a non-profit organization located in Haymarket that is working to establish the Bull Run Warrior Retreat, on Waterfall Rd.

CLICK HERE to email the church with more questions.

HO, HO, HO!  

SEE YOU THERE!

Operation: Mistletoe! Feel the love!

What do you get when you cross the perfect Christmas gift with a symbol that represents the spirit of our wounded, ill and injured Warriors + Families?

A mistletoe ornament, of course!

SOWW's Limited Edition "Mistletoe Forest Ornaments" will be available at Old Luckett's Store Antiques in Leesburg, VA on Black Friday for donations of $25 or more. Only 100 ornaments are available, so get there early and please give generously.

The ornaments were hand crafted using mistletoe from the treetops of Bull Run Warrior Retreat to bring awareness to the community at large about the "home away from home" we are renovating for our recovering Warriors + Their Families.

Clusters of mistletoe hanging in the trees at Bull Run Warrior Retreat this past winter.

The "Mistletoe Forest Ornaments" feature red or gold hand-dyed silk ribbons and include the mistletoe lore in the packaging.  They are a beautiful, festive touch and make for a very traditional (or  very affectionate) Christmas gift.

Here are some interesting mistletoe facts from the label that will be fun to share with your family + friends throughout the holidays! 

It is easy to see why we thought mistletoe was symbolic of our wounded, ill and injured Warriors + Families.  Our Willing Warrior Families are the epitome of American Resilience.  Our vision is to provide a peaceful "home away from home" for them as they heal and mend from the seen and unseen wounds of war. Since mistletoe represents healing, peace + resilience, we were thrilled to find that it grew in the treetops above the house at Bull Run Warrior Retreat.  Surely, it was a sign!

Now let me share just a little more mistletoe madness. Below I have chronicled just what was involved in harvesting the mistletoe and making these classic ornaments!

We started early - before the autumn leaves had fallen. I had noticed the mistletoe in the trees last winter when it was easy to spot the round, green balls flourishing high on the bare branches. But trying to see it while the leaves were still up required a telescopic lens. Once I was sure there was enough to harvest, I snagged my tree-climbing husband to help out.

Mistletoe cluster high up in the branches at Bull Run Warrior Retreat.

Up my husband goes with a bag to pluck the dangerously high clusters off the branches.

Bull Run Warrior Retreat has such a glorious front yard!  It made for a majestic backdrop for harvesting mistletoe !

 

 

Some high winds had blown one branch down low and the mistletoe was hanging within reach.  Such a symbolic picture - a cluster of mistletoe hanging right above the retreat home.

Oops!  I mean, we had to test it, right?

After about an hour of Dan swinging from tree branches, we had collected a big basket of mistletoe to take back to my garden shed.

As we were leaving, some wild turkeys on the property began to gobble. We walked over to watch them strutting through some barberry bushes on the property!  Oooohhh!  Barberry!  So the pretty red berries were harvested as well to add to the ornaments.

Berried mistletoe curing in my garden shed.

Bull Run Warrior Retreat Barberries + Mistletoe

The mistletoe had to dry out a bit before the real work began of wiring it to hang suspended in glass ornaments.  Otherwise, the too-fresh leaves released some type of gas that clouded the clear ornament and turned it into a pearly gray color that was nearly opaque.

And so began long hours of sitting in my mistletoe'd garden shed with a space heater at my feet while I constructed the ornaments.  With the twinkling lights above and the soundtrack from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" playing as I worked, I felt positively like a Christmas Elf!  When my feet or fingers got really cold, or I started feeling stiff from hunching over the little glass orbs, I would just think about our Warriors and their American resilience . . . 

It warmed me up every time!

So Come to Old Luckett's Store Antiques on Black Friday and get your very own Mistletoe Forest Ornament!

Just Hang Them + Pucker Up!

For directions to Luckett's 

Click Here!