NEWSLETTER

 Below is our latest newsletter from Memorial Day and the needs have not changed much, just increased.

We now have Operation Urgent Troop Care our latest mission where funds and volunteers are urgently needed to support 3 new units and many individual troops who have signed up for support in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Please use our donate button to help in any way you can. Every little bit matters as we are just a volunteer organization.

We need to spread the word that our troops are being forgotten and they are in need of support. Please share our website, and join us on Twitter and Facebook.  That can help our troops enormously..just word of mouth. 


Wishing everyone a wonderful July 4th and summer . Please take a moment and remember we still have a war going on, with so many heroes hoping we have not forgotten them. Our freedoms we celebrate are due to every eveteran who has ever served, and our troops deployed now. God bless them all.

Sandy Kellermann

                                 Homefront Hugs Founder

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
May 25, 2011
 
Dear Volunteers and Members of Homefront Hugs USA,
 
This Memorial Day we remember our veterans who have given our lives for our country and their brave families who stand tall and quietly proud as they miss their loved ones.
 
This Memorial Day we remember all the brave heroes who made it possible that we finally capture and see the end of a terrorist who ordered the countless deaths of Americans and allies on 9-11.
 
This Memorial Day we visit the gravesites of veterans who fought so hard in wars long before our birth and since, without the supports we now are able to give with improved technology and communication.
 
This Memorial Day we remember the children left behind without parents to grow up with only memories…our Gold Star families.
 
And this Memorial Day I thank God for the blessing of having so many wonderful troops and families to support and for the incredible volunteers we have gained over the past 10 years since we started Homefront Hugs. I thank each and every one of you for your time and help from wherever you live.
Our troops,veterans and families thank you as well.
This Memorial Day, hug your loved ones tight, appreciate our freedoms that never came free, and remember in your own ways the sacrifices .
 
Sincerely in gratitude,
 
Alessandra “Sandy” Kellermann and my co-president Ed
Founder and President
Homefront Hugs USA
Ann Arbor, Michigan
 
 
 
  
 
Now for the News:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Homefront Hugs is moving to new headquarters
 
 
 
We are moving and not by choice due to a landlord here at Woodland Mews who believes disabled folks should live elsewhere, especially when they ask for repairs and snow removal out of their disability parking spot, and thus both our family and Homefront Hugs USA will have a new address as of June 4th:
 
Homefront Hugs USA
1850 Brookfield Drive
Ann Arbor,MI 48103
 
We are sad to leave our current HQ and home, but we did file with HUD and are going to make sure that the owners of Woodlan Mews can never do this to a military family and disabled person again. It has caused great hardship personally, but our missions have continued as they must.
Special thanks to the University of Michigan Mens Soccer Team for agreeing to help us move Homefront Hugs and our personal belongings always there to help. And that includes you Coach Burns for being such a great leader and role model for your soccer stars.
GO BLUE !
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Our troops have to face challenges every day, and never get to quit…and nor will we quit. Our troops and families need us more than ever.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Troop Needs
 
Currently we have 24 care packages which need sponsorship of $12 each . We had to add 10 more today due to a new group that signed up. To donate, click here: http://bit.ly/lKSUIz
We are in need of supplies requested again by our troops that we can purchase with a donation, or you can send to us:
 
  • DVDs used or new
  • beef jerky
  • baby wipes
  • CDs of music all kinds
  • funny and romantic blank cards to send home to loved ones
  • Crystal Light to add to water
  • pretzel rods
  • Blowpops
  • Sunlotion
  • Multi Vitamins (please check exp dates)
  • frisbees
  • soccer balls with air pumps
  • footballs
  • yoyos
  • squirt guns for stress relief
  • water balloons for fun…everyone needs a break from war !

 
For the children in Afghanistan :
  • LEGOS used or new
  • Beanie Babies (animals only) and stuffed animals only gently used or new to respect their culture
  • Washable Markers and paper
  • Hot wheels used or new
 
If you would like to donate funds, please remember we are just a volunteer organization now and hope in time we can reinstate our non-profit status when the economy improves. We appreciate any help you can give us right now especially as the cost of moving ourselves and Homefront Hugs has been tough.
We need to go shopping for the next round of supplies for our heroes and simply do not have the funds. We need a dedicated fax machine. We need to cover higher internet costs now to run our guestbook and forums we have decided to implement to help offer support. And as always, we all are volunteers, including your president here.
We also need to ship the care packages we have ready to go right now.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
Adoption Needs
 
Currently we have 24 troops needing adoption, a unit of troops if you wish to adopt a group if you are a business or church or synagogue,etc, and 7 very patient families who are hoping to be adopted.
Forms to adopt can be found on our website which has been updated with lots of new helpful info as of last night.
If you are interested or need adoption yourself, please email Adoptions@HomefrontHugs.org
 
 
 

Homefront Lunchbox Hugs Recipients of Katrina

 
 
Disaster Relief: Homefront Lunchbox Hugs
Although we ourselves are out of tornado alley and hurricane threats in beautiful Michigan…we have not forgotten our friends, military families and volunteers who may have been affected in these areas. We are looking for someone to take the reigns and run Homefront Lunchbox Hugs so that we can coordinate it from here, but you can accept and deliver the filled lunchbox hugs and
backpacks there to Red Cross shelters and other areas where children and families may be hurting. If you are interested and think you want to help, please email us at info@HomefrontHugs.org.
If you are interested in filling lunchboxes and backpacks as we did during Hurricane Katrina , please contact us as well. And if you are a military family affected by these tornadopees and floods. PLEASE contact us !
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Have you looked at our website lately?
 
With the help of a wonderful grad student named Keith Fuller, I have managed to learn Word Press and how to update our site more easily after he did all the hard work and design ! As a result, we have a new website, wonderful resources listed for all, a new caregiver info page as the law has finally been implemented !!, a new Kids Page and a new Care Package Tips page. We are very excited and hope you find it as fun to look through and find information, read our latest articles, as we do .
To go to our website, the link: http://www.HomefrontHugs.org
You can also share our website easily with any of the social networks now.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Homefront Hugs Kids Clubs
 
We are still looking for eager Moms.Dads. and teachers across the country who may wish to start a Homefront Hugs Kids or Teen Club wherever you live. You can make it as big or as small as you wish. You can have several within one town. You can meet as often or as little as you wish. We want it to be a enjoyable and fun as possible for all. Brochures can be found on our website as well as plenty of ideas on the Parent/Teacher Flyer. If you are interested, please email us for an application . There is no cost. We just want kids and teens to learn how to give back with the values we cherish at Homefront Hugs.
 
 
 
 
Upcoming Events
 
 
 

  • We have been invited to share our work with Family Circle magazine and they plan to publish our story and missions in their September issue. We are very excited especially as we are big longtime readers of Family Circle Magazine.
.
These postcards are available for sale to help our missions !


  • In honor of our 10 year anniversary and 9-11′s ten year anniversary, we will be asking everyone to share their thoughts in 5 sentences of where you were and what working with Homefront Hugs has meant to you. Please send them to: HomefrontHugsUSA@aol.com with subject 9-11 along with a photo of you or your family. The deadline is August 15th. Thanks so much !
 
 
 
Special Messages
 
 
Sometimes an issue comes up that can affect all of us, and we decide to include it in our newsletter. This is one of those. One of our volunteers in Florida has a son who has been waiting for an organ transplant for years. Although this could consume any mother, she still finds the time to give back and help us at Homefront Hugs. Now it’s our turn. Please consider donating your organs if anything should happen to you. It is one of the most beautiful gifts anyone could give another human being. And surprisingly, many of us are not aware of the facts:
 
110,586 people are waiting for an organ
18 people will die each day waiting for an organ
1 organ donor can save up to 8 lives
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Meet Joel and his Dad, whom we met years ago in 2003 in Lakeland,Florida when seeking the best pediatrician in town for our co-president Ed.
Dr.Leviten saved Ed’s life when he suddenly acquired asthma at age 4 and then we learned what incredibly proud Army Dad he was of his son Joel. He and his super wife Joy have supported Homefront Hugs and our missions with passion and empathy always taking on our medical personnel and any troops who needed extra TLC while supporting Joel on his tours overseas. Now Joel is there on his 3rd tour and Homefront Hugs gets the chance to spoil him and his buddies as well as his wife Rachel. Both are huge Facebook fans and are able to keep in touch regularly to help ease the strain of a 3rd tour. Shalom and God Bless !
 
 
 
 
 
In Memory and Tribute to A Hero Gone Too Soon
 
 
Lcpl. Christopher “Blake” Rodgers is one of nearly 600 heroes we lost this past year, killed in action, a Marine through and through who left a family grieving and lost, yet incredibly proud. We met his father on Twitter about to celebrate his birthday…yes..they share the same birthdays and missing his son even more, if that is even possible. His sister Emily still tries on his coat to remember and feel a bit closer.
Chris Rodgers, his father, shared his Facebook page filled with Blake’s life story…full of love and good times with sis as a child, and proud times as a little baseball player and going to air shows with Dad. Parris Island was next when he was old enough to join and the bond between Blake and his fellow Marines was clear. When Blake passed, his brothers in arms tatooed their arms in his memory.
This is a common but incredibly poignant, painful way our warriors deal with their loss of their friends in the war. This Memorial Day, remember the sacrifices..remember Blake who had his whole life ahead of him like so many, and gave it all. And remember the Gold Star families left behind.
 

This Memorial Day …honor the fallen…and see if you can stand watching this entire list of heroes lost…each a life on its own with loved ones and families still grieving…so sad,so fast so young…but at Homefront Hugs, never forgotten.

 

 

 
LETTERS
Letters from the Troops
 
 
I wanted to write you to comment on the amazing support that “Homefront Hugs” has provided myself and my wife. I am currently deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom while my family moved back home to Michigan for the birth of my second child. Alessandra and her organization along with the volunteers and supporters have truly been a blessing for myself and my family. They’re constantly checking to make sure not only I am doing well but my wife and children as well and continually offer support for any needs we might have. Rosemary the sponsor that we were blessed with has been amazing as well. She even checked on us to make sure I was having a great R and R and to congratulate us on the birth of our son and sent them gifts as well.
Any service member is blessed to be taken care of by an organization of angels such as these. They truly go above and beyond because they feel in their hearts that’s the treatment we deserve. They recognize the impact a deployment not only has on the service member but the families as well in many ways it is harder on the family back home and they realize and address that to help ease the anxiety and stress associated with us not being there. I cant think of many organizations who’s volunteers go the extra mile to do whatever they can to take care of us, not because they have to but because they want to. They don’t just send a care package and that’s it or send a card or email. They follow up they get to know us as people and that is important. They continue to I hope that after I return I can hug the folks who have blessed my family during this tough time, thank them and show them truly how important they are and how much it means to everyone they support! Their mission is us and like us they don’t give up on a mission, they see it through.
 
SGT Brian MacConaghy
TF PHOENIX
Chaplain Assistant
A Michigan Family

Jaxin MacConaghy joined the world in February…another Homefront Hugs baby:

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protestor to burn the flag.”
 
Father Denis Edward O’Brien

 

 Have a safe and relaxing Memorial Day weekend and thank you for your support of our heroes, and Heroes, thank you for your service to our country.

If you need support, we are here. Adoptions@HomefrontHugs.org


Please feel free to share this special tribute with others.

 

Every day children and adults die waiting for a transplant...