Posted on 12/18/2009 5:06:26 PM PST by Stonewall Jackson
Fort Mill, SC (WBTV) – In this season of giving, retail giant Lowe's Home Improvement donated $25,000 to help bring 200 soldiers home for the holidays. The company's generosity is making it possible for Pierson Young's husband to be there for their baby girl, Addison's first Christmas. "We're very excited," said Young.
"When he left last time, she wasn't holding her head up on her own and now she can almost sit by herself," she said. "And all these new things we get to share with Daddy. Milestones that I was afraid he was going to miss--but is now going to be able to see." Her husband, Staff Sgt. Will Young has only seen four month old Addison 2 or 3 times since she was born.
When Young called her husband to tell him the news--that he was indeed coming home--he thought for she was joking. "He kept saying ‘just kidding, just kidding' right?," recalled Young. "And I was like no, it's true."
The Charlotte region raised 35 thousand dollars in three days to give 200 soldiers a bus ticket home. Cliff Laxer, a store manager with Lowe's, said there was never any question they would help. "You know we're a community player," he said. "And hearing about this, Lowe's took the opportunity to make this happen. Because it's priceless."
Young wants people to know the enormity of their generosity isn't lost on the families of these soldiers. "It very might well be some of our last time seeing them," she said. "And it might not. I hope not. But if it is, to have the opportunity to have them home for Christmas is very touching."
The soldiers are in Wisconsin right now but will be heading to Afghanistan next year.
Ten thousand dollars were raised through donations to the Family Readiness Group and then employees at the Lowe's store in Fort Mill, S.C. appealed to the corporate office for assistance.
BTTT
You gotta love stories like these.
GOD BLESS OUR FINE MILITARY AND THE CIVILIANS THAT DO THE RIGHT THING FOR THE RIGHT REASONS!!!
I love hearing stories like this!
Our soldiers shouldn’t have to be in the position in the first place. I know we have $100 billion dollars a year to give away to 3rd world countries for climate change, but how about treating our men and women in arms with the dignity they’ve earned first?
Great job Lowes!
"Maybe you better sit down and pop a Xanax before reading any further, because what I'm about to tell you should seriously short you out: not only is the average soldier's salary barely life-sustaining, the combat pay of the average grunt in Afghanistan and Iraq is only $7.50 a day or a measly $225 a month." - Col. David H. Hackworth (USA Ret.) is SFTT.org co-founder and senior military columnist for DefenseWatch magazine.
http://www.alternet.org/world/21130/
The Feds are pissing away millions of dollars a second on nonsense, and won't give Americas finest a bus ticket?
It isn’t quite as bad for active duty personnel, since a majority of them have personal vehicles on post. But the National Guardsmen and Reservists who end up 500-600 miles from home, training for their deployment, are almost always without private transportation.
The military to my knowledge does not pay for leave travel no matter when it is. That sentence makes it sound like they won’t pay just before deployment but that’s not the case. Leave is paid vacation essentially and your travel expenses while on leave are your responsibility.
Your knowledge is correct. There are some hardship duty stations - like Gitmo - where the Navy/Marine Corps will provide military transportation back to the mainland. But, that's the exception, not the rule.
All my buddies ended up together in one barracks but I was the last one off the bus so I got stuck in a closed down barracks that had no electricity or heat. The temp that night was about 35 degrees in the barracks.
They had no blankets left in supply so they gave me about 4 sets of sheets. I slept that night in my dress greens wrapped up in the 4 sets of sheets............
The next morning I hiked over to the barracks where my buddies were and took a hot shower there. Later in the day somebody processed out so I took over his bunk
Come Monday morning, I processed out but not without a final screw job. At approx. 8:45 a.m. in the out processing center, they called my name, gave me my discharge documents and asked me to review them.
Well guess, what? They misspelled my name. They then told me to have a seat.........I sat there till about 3 in the afternoon till they finally called me again and gave me the documents for review. Then they gave me my pay and that was it. I headed back to the barracks. Once there I changed into my civies and threw my dress greens into the garbage can and left. I found a phone booth with a phone book and called the airlines to book a flight home to Michigan. I caught a cab with 2 other guys heading to the airport so we shared the fare.......
That was just too surreal..........
While in the big scheme of things it obviously would be money spent on well-deserving people, but do you think it is realistic for the military to pay for on-leave travel? Because if it was free, I’d probably go to Hawaii or the Bahamas. I would like to see perhaps the first x dollars reimbursed, something like that would be reasonable.
BUMP
I was going on my knowledge since my son has had to pay for all his trips home, but I wasn’t sure if there were exceptions. Now I do know if you have the time and they have the room, you can hitch a ride with military aircraft for free.
Home Depot fired an employee for wearing a cross. We haven’t set foot in there since that happened.
Lowe’s is a good company. Their stores are MUCH nicer than HD, their employees have some professional knowledge, and I’ve never gotten an assistant/associate - whatever they’re called - with an attitude or who just told me whatever BS they could think of to get rid of me. Their selection and quality are much better than HD’s and the prices are comparable. We’re completing a total remodel right now so we’ve bought tons of stuff. There’s just no comparison. Lowe’s is far superior to HD.
God bless our troops, and God bless Lowe’s for this fine gesture.
Don’t get me started.
See my #14.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.