By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 5, 2014 – The USO and the nonprofit
organization Full Circle Home teamed up May 2 to assemble Mother’s Day care
packages for military moms and other sustainers on the homefront.
The service project, hosted by Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice
President Joe Biden, was held at the vice presidential residence, where Dr.
Biden joined USO volunteers and staff members, congressional spouses and others
to assemble the packages.
USO President John I. Pray Jr. greeted the volunteers and
explained the goal of the service project.
“We have come together to assemble 2,000 Full Circle Home
care packages,” he said. “These packages contain items to comfort and support a
very special segment of our military family: moms, spouses, girlfriends and all
those amazing people who sustain the homefront while their loved ones are
deployed serving this great nation elsewhere.”
Pray thanked the volunteers, including Lilibet Hagel, wife
of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, and lauded the secretary for his support of
service members and their loved ones.
“I know that the secretary has always kept the men and women
in uniform and their families uppermost in his mind,” he said. “It’s wonderful
to have his support.”
Full Circle Home arranges gift boxes to be sent on behalf of
service members to military moms and spouses around the country. Mother’s Day
packages consist of “pampering products” such as tissues, hand cream, perfume,
nail polish and an engraved bracelet.
Vickie Durfee, founder of Full Circle Home and a self-described
“Marine mom,” addressed the group and expressed her appreciation for the USO.
“It’s great to team up with like-minded organizations that
really support the troops in so many different ways,” she said.
“Full Circle Home has been able to help deployed troops send
their love and gifts at Mother’s Day and at Christmas to women in every state
in the nation, and to bases around the world. We’re very unique in that we help
the deployed send something special to their [heroes] that’s very personal and
[a] very intimate thing.”
Durfee noted troops have the opportunity to place a
handwritten love note to their special lady in each gift.
“When the gifts reach these women, we find that the phone
calls and emails start,” Durfee said. “These women do not expect anything to
come to them -- they send packages, they don’t expect to receive them. They’re
so touched that people would think of them, to recognize them and their
sacrifices, and honor them.”
Biden noted the event was taking place as Joining Forces,
the initiative she and First Lady Michelle Obama started and have championed,
is marking its third anniversary. It’s important to “make sure that all these
brave men and women, and their families” know that America recognizes their
sacrifices, she said.
“The USO is always there, [and] always an incredible
partner,” she added. “I’m sure that many of the congressional spouses who are
here today … find that about the USO as well.”
Biden said it was nice to be able to put together care
packages for Mother’s Day, recalling the year when her son was deployed to
Iraq.
“I don’t know about you, but it was one tough year to have
my son deployed,” she said. “I don’t know how I would have taken it had I
opened something from my son when he was deployed. I think I would have cried
for like a week. But I hope we bring smiles their faces.”
Biden expressed her gratitude to the volunteers for donating
their time to honor service members and their families.
“I want our troops to know we’re thinking of them each and
every day, and [that] we’re supporting them,” she said. “I hope they feel the
love from all of us.”
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