Operation Homefront provides emergency financial and other assistance to the families of our service members and wounded warriors.


A local 501(c)3 non profit organization
Combined Federal Campaign # 23189

Operation Homefront-Florida Website

Thursday, May 6, 2010

How a new donor helped two Florida military families

By Christy Campbell

Although I work with Operation Homefront-Florida every day, it still blows me away each time I have the good fortune to witness an act of kindness or generosity.  A few weeks ago I was visiting Tampa for a meeting and heard that someone was donating a house full of furniture to a military family in need.  On that particular day, Jeff and I traveled out the house to inventory the furniture.  We were both impressed with the quality.  These pieces of furniture could certainly be resold for a handful of cash, but instead the donor, who's father had recently passed, wanted to give the high quality furniture to a military family in need.  We did not get to meet the family who received the furniture that day, or see their faces, but we did receive this letter a few days later to give to the donor.

Dear Sir,
I am so very thankful for your donation to us.   I recently have returned from a deployment.  We have been renting a furnished home.  We will be moving from this home into a place that is unfurnished.  The furniture received is an excellent start for us to furnish our new place.  We are preparing for the future because my income will decrease now that I am off of deployment.  We are in the process of continuing to  look for anything to furnish our new residence and looking for a second vehicle.  So we have a lot of preparations to do.  But I am so thankful for you being a blessing to us.  And I am so sorry under the circumstances.  Our prayers will be with you.  I am a family of one wife, four girls and one son.  We all say thank you so much.
~Florida National Guard Service member

 For this military family, the donor's act of kindness came at a much needed time and met a very important need.  Little did I know, I would get to see another example of this donor's generosity only a few weeks later when he would donate his father's vehicle to another Florida service member.  During the week of the Outback Steakhouse Pro Am, Operation Homefront-Florida helped identify a service member truly in need of a vehicle and complete the documents needed to transfer the car.  We were present the day she received the keys.  I think this picture says it all.

This young Air Force airman told me that day that she plans to make military service a career and that this car will allow her to see her family more often.  She was was incredibly grateful and overcome with emotion.  I was thankful to be able to witness the event.  It was really impressive to see someone take something sad like losing their father, and turn it into something so positive for 2 different military families.  I learned later that this donor also regularly sends packages over to Afghanistan and Iraq and makes an effort on a regular basis to give back.  Thank you from all of us on the Operation Homefront-Florida team for your donations and generosity. 



If you are interested in helping fill a need for a Florida military service member, visit the needs page on our website.