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Message: Here's a great article I found at www.northwestnavigator.com: -- The NAVSTA Everett chaplains office, along with the Navy Wives Club of America (NWCA) have joined forces to make sure this year is a happy holiday for every Navy family. The tandem is helping distribute gift certificates and toys to active duty families in need of support during the holiday season. “Just put yourself in the perspective of a junior Sailor,” urged Lt. Timothy Loney, Everett’s chaplain. “He or she’s got two or three kids and sometimes scraping to make ends meet. The Navy pays better now than it ever has but try feeding a couple of kids and it can get pretty tough. Anything we can provide for them is great support.” The Christmas Gift Certificate and Toy Drive is an annual program put on by the Chaplain’s Office during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season. Funds for the holiday programs are received through religious offerings of the chapel communities and donations from local companies. Last year, they helped almost 500 Sailors receive a little extra holiday cheer with commissary gift certificates and toys. The local NWCA Totem chapter #277, first chartered in June, was looking for a way to make a positive impact on the community when they heard of the chaplain’s toy drive. “We wanted to help,” said TaraDawn Knull, NWCA Totem #277 vice president. “This is exactly the kind of thing that we normally get involved with because it’s directly helping out our sponsor base.” The local NWCA group, the country’s only national federation of Navy spouses, is contributing to the gift certificate and toy drive by wrapping, picking out, and distributing the gifts to Sailors in need. The Chaplain’s Office is looking for Sailors needing support during the holiday season right now, said Loney. “We go to departments and ask them to provide us names of the Sailors in their command that they deem in need of assistance,” he said. “It’s typically junior Sailors that are married and have a couple of kids. We’re trying to give them some support. It’s like saying, ‘we care about you and this is one way that we can take care of you’.” Those interested in donating toys to the Chaplain’s Christmas Gift Certificate and Toy Drive can do so by placing the presents in the Toy Drive bins located in The Commons, commissary and elsewhere around base. All toys put in the bins will go to a needy sailor, said Loney. Officers in charge, department heads, leading chief petty officer and leading petty officers with Sailors in need of support during the holidays in their department are encouraged to submit the servicemembers rate, full name, command/ work center, command point of contact with phone number, age and gender of children to Joshua.mauk@navy.mil, charlene.hoffman@navy.mil and timothy.loney@navy.mil. by next Friday, Dec. 10. All requests are strictly confidential and no information will be shared. http://www.northwestnavigator.com/index.php/navigator/regionalnews/nwca_chaplains_team_up_for_holiday_toy_drive/
