JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – Operation Ham Grenade on Joint Base Lewis-McChord went on as scheduled this year - minus the ham.
“There seems to be a shortage of hams this year,” said Isabella Colvin, Association of the United States Army’s Captain Meriweather Lewis Chapter president. “Instead, we did 1,500 gift cards and it’s a full gratitude-giving program.”
The gift cards were distributed to selected junior enlisted service members with families on Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The event was coordinated by JBLM’s Chaplain’s Corps along with command support.
“The volunteer team has done an amazing job raising $45,000 to support the service members,” said Chaplain (Col.) Jason Nobles, JBLM garrison chaplain. “We are so grateful for all that you do and have done.”
Colvin further recognized the volunteers who dedicated their time to make this event successful.
“What’s great about this season is it’s a volunteer team,” said Colvin. “They’re all veterans and veteran’s spouses and there’s 12 thousand volunteer hours just from this team to the community, and we’re here to serve you.”
The units who received gift cards were thankful for the gesture.
“I just want to say thank you on behalf of 1st Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division soldiers,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Charles Smith, brigade sergeant major. “It’s impressive that people get together in times like this and help each other out, and hopefully we can reciprocate and do things on behalf of our community too. This is about building relationships and getting that connective tissue and making sure that we stay relevant with the community we’re around and not forget where we are and what we do.”
“Absolutely fantastic event to be able to have volunteers coming out to support our service members,” said Col. Charles “Dean” Smith, 22nd Corps Signal Brigade commander. “Any bit of help specially with high rates of food prices right now going into the holiday period. What a great help for the service members to be able to buy food to support their families.”
Colvin also thanked all the community partners who reached out and asked how they can serve and how can they give. This year’s holiday programs raised over $65,000 and 100 percent of it all went right back into the service members and their families, said Colvin.
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