Fellow Patriots,
Operation Santa is our signature charity and the main effort of VFW Post 12002.
Operation Santa is a fully tax deductible, registered 501-c(19) veterans charity. It is also registered with the Combined Federal Campaign # 56166. It is operated by volunteers, most of whom are members of VFW Post 12002; men and women that have, at some point been deployed overseas in defense of our glorious nation and its Constitution.
This is a true non-profit - no participant or officer is on any payroll. Every dollar raised goes to help Georgia based deployed troops and their families. Some administrative costs (ie; shipping, supplies, some advertising, etc.) are incurred and paid with funds raised, but no volunteers get paid. Even these administrative costs are less than 5%.
Operation Santa was conceived by members of VFW Post 12002 in the beginnings of the Global War on Terror (the GWoT). Our troops were getting deployed in high numbers and with increased frequency, as fighting ramped up in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other little known places. Our members wanted to do something to express our support of our troops whenever and however we could. Flying the flag was not enough.
Media support for the GWoT was already beginning to wane and, because most of our membership consisted of Vietnam veterans who remembered what happened on the home front during that conflict, we wanted to make certain that the GWoT was not lost on the home front, in much the same way the Vietnam war was. Not a single firefight was lost in Vietnam - but meant little when we lost the support for that war and its warriors on the home front.
Contrary to the old saying, hstory does not repeat itself. History is repeated by people that refuse to learn history's lessons.
The membership of VFW Post 12002 consists of former warriors, all. Just as no athlete enjoys watching the game from the sidelines, the warriors of VFW Post 12002 wish they could don their uniforms and serve and fight alongside those who now carry the torch of freedom. In lieu of going to the battle front, we've decided to take up the battle on the home front. Operation Santa is our main effort. We are effective and we are winning!
Most of the funds raised through Operation Santa are spent purchasing Christmas gifts for the children of Georgia-based deployed troops. While they are away serving us, we work to make the pain and sacrifice, that the families left behind must experience, hopefully a little bit more bearable. Most importantly, we let those troops and their families know that we - and the many individuals and corporations that contribute to Operation Santa, thank them, support them, and support their mission. We like to say that we represent the silent majority.
Since its inception, Operation Santa has raised and spent over $180,000.
- We have touched the lives of over 3000 deployed troops and their families.
- We have purchased & delivered truck loads of Christmas gifts (and had to rent the trucks to do it).
- We have paid to have troops' cars repaired.
- We have paid for groceries for families.
- We have given out telephone calling cards in the thousands.
- We have bought & shipped meeded gear to underfunded Marine Corps Reserve sniper units in Afghanistan.
- We sent tools to Marine Corps Reserve units to repair the HMMWV's received on arrival in Afghanistan.
- We have purchased body armor.
- We have paid late utility bills.
- We have paid rent & mortgage payments for troops' families whose incomes, while deployed, was much lower than their civilian jobs provided.
This year we are working to do even more for our troops.
Our intent is to ensure these troops and their families will never sit and wonder if anybody knows what they are going through, or even cares. VFW members know firsthand.
These troops will never wonder, or harbor doubts that their sacrifices for our freedom are known or appreciated. They will know. Operation Santa will show them we know and appreciate what they undergo for us.
We chose the name "Operation Santa" under the notion that, for troops deployed from their those they love and who love them, that miss them, Christmas is when they get home - whatever day of the year that is,
Christmas is the day that they get to hold their families in their arms once again. Christmas is when they get to know for sure that they are all safe and reunited.
God bless our warriors as they fight for the freedoms that most of us take for granted, God speed to them. May their aim be true. May their bullets fly straight. May their grenades and indirect fire be lethal and effective. We ask God and the members of the VFW to help them to carry the burdens of war. May they never come home to anything less than a hero's welcome. They are our heroes. Amen.
Christian Stevens,
Post Commander,
VFW Post 12002
Operation Santa
