When most people were settling into the Christmas spirit, Operation Homefront and the elves were busy at work. Through Walmart’s generous sponsorship, Operation Homefront was able to give a surprise gift card valued at $1,000 to almost 120 families on Christmas Eve. However, the ultimate gift was a reunion surprise to a military family at Ft. Hood when the father was brought home from Iraq the day before Christmas. The "Today" show captured all of the joy shared that day and you can watch the video here.
These Christmas Eve gift card giveaways took place in Ohio, Oklahoma and North Carolina. As usual, the unexpected happened. Several people on a bus leaving Ft. Sill in Oklahoma were stopped when the garrison commander had to shut down the post due to the ice storm. In North Carolina, one registered mom had to cancel at the last minute because she had to go to the hospital to give birth.
The Sotorius Family (pictured above), attended one of the surprise shopping events in North Carolina on Christmas Eve and shared their thoughts. “Thank you so much for the gift card, that was not expected! My family was able to have an awesome Christmas, I got the treadmill I wanted & a new dresser for my room. I was able to stock up on some diapers for my son & got him some toys. I was also able to send my husband a new fancy razor in Afghanistan that he wanted. We're going to stock up on some groceries with the rest of the gift card. Thank you so much for supporting the Military, it means a lot!”
We can’t say enough about Walmart and the joy that was brought to thousands of military families this holiday season. Well beyond their generous sponsorship, their associates came out in droves to help with toy shops, gift card shopping events, special displays, elf hats, a crane, and an indomitable commitment to helping our military families: from LATE night runs to the distribution center for toys to LATE night searches for scarves. Thank you Walmart for all of the priceless gifts you helped Operation Homefront give during this holiday season.