Working with the National Charity League are Isabelle Seward, Lauren Coughlin, Eve Jeffries, Danielle Pfleger, Lauren Mello, McKenzie Knupp, and Lucie Picard. —Bonnie Leavy-Mello photo
The National Charity League’s Nutmeg Chapter has been helping military troops and their families.
Mother and daughter teams gathered recently to work on two holiday projects for Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit that helps wounded service members and families of those deployed overseas. Teams fashioned hand-written holiday card wishes, stuffed holiday stockings, and created holiday treats.
The first project was coordinated by Denise D’Ambrosio, Nutmeg’s vice president of philanthropy, who had assisted Operation Homefront TriState in a mailing project to support the troops, which included 600 letters with brochures for the holiday fund-raiser.
The second project involved assembling more than 200 holiday stockings for the children of Connecticut’s military families and writing hundreds of holiday cards, which will be sent to deployed service men and women.
Nutmeg’s Operation Homefront liaison Gina Cushman contacted Operation Homefront in August to determine the best way to help troops and their families for the holidays. All the materials and gifts used to make and fill the stockings were donated by chapter members. Included in the stockings were 24 beautiful handmade baby and toddler hats made by the Ridgefield chapter for the stocking stuffers. The members assembled reindeer candy canes, while others stuffed holiday stockings with hand-sewn hats, children’s books, toys, stuffed animals, and other goodies.
The stockings will be given to children of the service men and women at the New London naval base’s holiday event today, Dec. 19.
Operation Homefront provides financial assistance, food, household goods and other services to families in need. Visit www.operationhomefront.net for ways to help with its mission.