Santa's Suprise for A Marine and His Mom

A week or two ago, one of the ladies at the office came to me and asked about our “employee purchase program” for Dell computers.

She told me what was needed and asked if the warranty on the laptop would cover “sand.” “Sand?” I asked. It turned out that she wanted to get a laptop for her son, a full Corporal in the United States Marine Corp. Her son will shortly be starting his second tour in Iraq—this time as mobile security. The young man has a wife and infant.

I talked to a couple of people at the office and we jointly decided that we felt that we would like to contribute something to offset the cost of the laptop… after all, this laptop is for a Marine, so he can keep in touch with his mom and dad, and his wife and baby.

So we sent out some emails around the company (we have about 115 people here). I immediately got an email from a fellow employee that works closely with this lady that said, “you tell me how much we raise, and I will pay the balance.” The other person that helped me organize this and I were moved to tears!!!!

The story gets better-- within a couple of days of discussing the idea, the employees of our company SECRETLY raised not only the $1475 for the laptop (we made sure this Marine is getting a GREAT laptop from Dell—AND our Dell Rep gave us a GREAT deal once he found out the cause), but also an additional $225 that we have used to buy 4150 Military Phone Card Minutes! That is $1700 raised in 48 hours all to help a Combat Marine and his family at Christmas. All money was from individual employees—not from corporate sponsorship.

Well the laptop arrived and has been loaded with software (office, anti-virus etc) and music (several GIG’s of music files). Some of us are also creating “Support our Troops” videos that we will load onto the laptop for this Corporal to share with the rest of his Platoon.

We surprised the Corporal's Mom with the laptop today during our company luncheon (there were lots of tears).

This was NOT “charity” for an employee—This was the “rank and file” employees of our company wanting to support a young man who is dedicating his life to serving our country.

This is something that we hope becomes contagious. We are from a small company who has one employee with a child in combat and we felt he should get a gift from Santa this Christmas.

Wouldn’t it be great if EVERY company who has employees with a Spouse, a Son or a Daughter in Combat decided that they should do something for their Service Man or Woman this year, or through-out the year? Our small group of employees did it, without Corporate Sponsorship.

Why can’t everyone?

Santa's Suprise for A Marine and His Mom