After rushing around every weekend this month to find presents for my family and friends, I took a few hours this weekend to volunteer with my fellow Red Crossers at Jefferson Barracks VA Hospital.  We passed out stockings with word puzzles, socks, small toiletries and “canteen books” (money to buy snacks inside the hospital).  It wasn’t much – but it meant the world to these guys.

While some of the patients had family there with them, most did not.  Their eyes lit up when they heard we were passing out goodies, and every one of them said “thank you.” Bob, one of the volunteers with us, remarked that some of the guys weren’t really used to expressing emotions, but you could tell from their faces how appreciative they were.

Walking through the hallways really made me think about what our troops have gone through to provide freedom for the rest of us. We saw patients with amputations, spinal cord injuries, and even some suffering from psychological illnesses.  Some were too sick for us to be allowed into their rooms.  Some had served recently, others decades ago.

Along with the stockings, we handed out holiday cards, signed by people from around St. Louis, as part of the Holiday Mail for Heroes program. We got so many cards this year (3,500 just from St. Louis!) that we had to send most of them overseas to be distributed.  If you want to see more pictures, check out the Service to Armed Forces Facebook page