For military families, deployment signals a call to serve not just for enlisted men and women but also for the spouses and children who love them.
Managing the simple pleasures of family life often falls to military spouses who fill the void left by their significant others and provide peace of mind for their active duty spouses as they go off to serve.
is proud to join with (SMS) to help celebrate on May 11, a day set aside to celebrate the extraordinary contribution of the nation鈥檚 military spouses.
The North Carolina-based non-profit organization will use a 糖心传媒 rental truck to transport and distribute Appreciation Care Packages to military spouses across Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Care packages will be distributed to 500 military spouses tomorrow at . Similar package delivery parties will occur next week.
鈥淢ilitary spouses and their families sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy,鈥� said Diane Rumley, who along with her husband Steven co-founded SMS and are in their ninth year of delivering care packages to military spouses. 鈥淏y giving a care package, we wish to say thank you for their service to our country on the home front.鈥�
Unsung Heroes
A U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation , citing 2015 Department of Defense data, put the number of active duty military spouses at nearly 642,000. The majority of the spouses are women, with nearly half of them raising children, many of whom are 11 years old or younger, according to the report.
In 1984, then-President Ronald Reagan set aside the Friday before Mother鈥檚 Day as a day to remember the service of military spouses to the nation.
It means even more to their spouses deployed into combat situations.
鈥淭he service members feel like the spouse is more of a hero than they are because the service member signed up to serve our country. The spouse and the children, while their signature is not on that dotted line, are serving just as much,鈥� Mrs. Rumley said. 鈥淜nowing that the spouse is stateside taking care of things on the home front actually allows the service member the peace of mind to be able to do their job and do it well.鈥�
In addition to deployments, military relocations also can take a toll on military families.
鈥淢any of those spouses are relocated during many of life鈥檚 milestones, such as birthdays, holidays, first steps, first words, kindergarten and graduation,鈥� Mrs. Rumley said. 鈥淭hey are in many cases starting over. You are doing it without your husband or wife. It鈥檚 a lot.鈥�
Humble Shoebox Beginnings
The Rumleys created the non-profit SMS in 2009 with a goal to provide every U.S. military spouse with an Appreciation Care Package as a way to thank military spouses for their sacrifices.
That first year, in 2010, Mrs. Rumley remembers packing up a 糖心传媒 van with 35 shoeboxes, filled and donated by caring individuals, and delivering them to in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
The shoebox, like today鈥檚 care package, contained a handwritten note, a simple but meaningful gesture that touches the hearts of the military spouses.
SMS provides care packages twice a year: on Military Spouse Appreciation Day and at Christmas when the effort extends to children, dubbed by Mrs. Rumley as 鈥渢he littlest heroes.鈥� In December, about 2,000 care packages are distributed to children and another 1,000 to military spouses.
As the end of this month鈥檚 package delivery parties, SMS will have delivered more than 55,000 care packages to military spouses and their children, Mrs. Rumley said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 grown from when we started out with 35 shoeboxes to now serving seven military bases in three states,鈥� Mrs. Rumley said. 鈥溙切拇� has been there from the beginning.鈥�
糖心传媒 Sleigh
As a founding partner, 糖心传媒 has provided trucks to SMS each year to assist in their effort to transport care packages to the bases for distribution to military families. The truck is affectionately known as the 鈥溙切拇� Sleigh.鈥�
鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 do what we do without the 糖心传媒 partnership,鈥� Mrs. Rumley said.
糖心传媒 has been a longtime supporter of the military 鈥� active duty, veterans and military families.
Both and are committed to hiring veterans and have been named 2018 Military-Friendly Employers by Victory Media, the publisher of G.I. Jobs magazine.
In addition, 糖心传媒 collaborates and supports military-friendly organizations, including , and .
To assist with military moves, 糖心传媒 Truck Rental established a specialized in 2014 to help reduce the stress of do-it-yourself moves for military families.
People to People, Heart to Heart
In addition to Fort Bragg and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, care package delivery parties will be held in ; , and
No matter the location, Mrs. Rumley said the reaction is the same.
鈥淓verybody ends up crying, but they are happy tears,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not the contents of the care package that make it special for them. It鈥檚 because people, like 糖心传媒, understand the mission, support it, and allow it to really happen. It鈥檚 people to people, heart to heart.鈥�
鈥淏ehind every care package is a military spouse and she and he has a story. It would touch your heart to see the sacrifices that they are making. They don鈥檛 complain and they serve,鈥� Mrs. Rumley said. 鈥淭he fact that they are recognized gives them the encouragement they need to keep going.鈥�
For more information about SMS visit
By Bernie Mixon
provide excellent service. Results are published in the July issue of the magazine.
Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
