Operation: Home for the Holidays
Donation protected
We’re Alyssa and Ashleigh, founders of the FSOK Freedom Writers and military wives ourselves.
The group was created in 2020 and is made up of other military families, teachers, friends of service members, and anyone who wants to bring some cheer to new trainees in the Army. Our focus are those in Basic Combat Training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Through this group we write encouraging letters to trainees who either have no support at home, are struggling mentally, or who are healing from an injury. Some trainees just love mail call so much they have signed themselves up to receive letters too! Even though the trainees are our main focus we have also written to soldiers in AIT, deployed troops, and those injured overseas in 2021.
We do a lot of small fundraising during the year, but our most important and impactful is Operation: Home for the Holidays. What started as an idea to assist one trainee in getting home for Holiday Block Leave (a two week period at the end of December where those in BCT and AIT have their training paused to spend time with family) turned into so much more. For the past two years we have raised enough money to cover flights and shuttle costs for 21 trainees!
We work directly with the travel agency at Fort Sill to facilitate the bookings and cover the costs of travel to and from home. We could not do this without their help and are very thankful for their support!
The group was created in 2020 and is made up of other military families, teachers, friends of service members, and anyone who wants to bring some cheer to new trainees in the Army. Our focus are those in Basic Combat Training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Through this group we write encouraging letters to trainees who either have no support at home, are struggling mentally, or who are healing from an injury. Some trainees just love mail call so much they have signed themselves up to receive letters too! Even though the trainees are our main focus we have also written to soldiers in AIT, deployed troops, and those injured overseas in 2021.
We do a lot of small fundraising during the year, but our most important and impactful is Operation: Home for the Holidays. What started as an idea to assist one trainee in getting home for Holiday Block Leave (a two week period at the end of December where those in BCT and AIT have their training paused to spend time with family) turned into so much more. For the past two years we have raised enough money to cover flights and shuttle costs for 21 trainees!
We work directly with the travel agency at Fort Sill to facilitate the bookings and cover the costs of travel to and from home. We could not do this without their help and are very thankful for their support!
Organizer
Alyssa Bertram
Organizer
Lawton, OK
