Santa's Castle

I had come up with an idea to have a classwide donation for this place on post called Santa's Castle.

Santa's Castle is a place where ONLY military members can be suggested by their chain of command to get FREE Chrismas presents for their children when they are in need. Many of us know the Army doesn't pay the best, and many times we have a hard time making ends meet. (My mind goes back to the song "American Soldier" where the lyrics say, "I don't do it for the money, there's bills that I can't pay" ... gosh there are times for ALL Soldiers that these words ring so true.) Santa's Castle is set up to provide every Soldier who is accepted into this program with over $100 in toys for every child. These gifts are a something that can make a Christmas without Daddy a lot more pleasant when it's hard to celebrate without him.

We have this Facebook page set up for the families of the Soldiers in training with our company (Echo 2/47) and I gave them a call to action. We asked them if they felt so compelled to donate 1 new unopened toy for a child from birth to 18 that we would make a large donation on behalf of the whole class. We told them that we'd have the donation box set up at the meet and greet. We asked all the Drill Sergeant's wives to bring a toy so they box didn't look empty. Well of COURSE we were late to the meet and greet - thanks John Haines - and when we got there the box was OVERFLOWING!! This was epic! I can't believe the donation given, but that wasn't all of it. Later that night, a couple came up to us and had quite literally a car load full of toys! They said they didn't have grandbabies and wanted to give back. The next morning at family day toys were still pouring in! This was sooo awesome! At the end of it all we had over 400 toys for our classwide donation to Santa's Castle.