Written by Angela Caban,

Last month I was invited to attend the Operation Touch of Home annual Military Appreciation Night. I was both honored and thankful for the opportunity to be able to attend and share this with my husband who is currently home. Throughout the evening we not only met with the various volunteers that dedicate their time so selflessly to this organization, but we were also surrounded with the Veterans of many eras; Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf war, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq. I still get chills when I come across any service member that is not my husband because I know the sacrifices they make each day for us and our families. I am so grateful to them all, and I was honored to be able to share dinner with them. It gives us all a moment to look at what we do and why. Regardless of branch, rank, or age this was one night when we all gathered to give thanks and support to those who serve.

Operation Touch of Home was founded by a local couple Dean and Sharon Green in 2004. Their son was preparing for deployment to Iraq, and wanted to ensure that the morale of soldiers was not impacted by lack of support from family and friends. Since 2004 Operation Touch of Home has delivered to over 770 servicemembers totaling over 89,000 pounds of care packages. And these packages are shared throughout entire units, so thousands of US troops have received items.

A special thanks to Operation Touch of Home, for providing our men and women in the armed forces with a little bit of home. It truly is amazing to be able to share this organization since this is a local organization. Operation Touch of Home is operated out of Monroe County in the Poconos’, Pennsylvania. For more information on Operation Touch of Home, or if you are in the Pocono area and would like to volunteer, please visit their website.

For more on Angela Caban, visit her website at www.angelacaban.com.

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