Veterans & Family Memorial Providers Send Over 15,000 Stuffed Christmas Stockings to Troops Overseas

Funeral Industry News December 6, 2011
CDFuneralNews

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Veterans & Family Memorial Providers Send Over 15,000 Stuffed Christmas Stockings to Troops Overseas

“I am overwhelmed with pride and joy” said Mark Davis, CEO of funeral industry public relations powerhouse, ValMark Memorial Group. “Operation Christmas Stockings for Soldiers surpassed all of our expectations this year.” Funeral home providers for ValMark’s Veterans & Family Memorial Care (VFMC) division rallied communities from all across the nation to send a taste of home and some Christmas Cheer to over 15,000 troops serving in harm’s way overseas. Here’s what just a few of the nearly 1000 Exclusive VFMC Providers had to say…

“The final tally is in, 887 stockings sent out as of today!! Last year, our first effort, netted about 250 stockings. We stepped up the promotion of the VFMC Stockings for Soldiers initiative and you can see the success. Attached is a picture of the display that we set up in the funeral home, featuring the stockings with a thank you photo collage that we received last year. Every person walking through our funeral home has seen this display for the past four weeks. Our community & staff absolutely love participating in this program.”
http://veteransfuneralhomes.com/downloads/stockings/stockings3.JPG

David Perotto
Bartolomeo & Perotto Funeral Home
Rochester NY

I wanted to share a picture with you. Last year we set a very ambitious goal for 2011 to ship 1000 filled stockings to our troops. We are getting super excited as it looks like we just might make it! With fantastic community support, we handed out 1000 and received back probably 6-700 so far along with boxes of extra products to fill more. They are due back Monday, December 5th. Cecil County, MD should be proud! The community has banded together and hit the ball out of the park on this one! What a show of love and support for our troops!
http://veteransfuneralhomes.com/downloads/stockings/stockingsjpg.JPG

Rob Crouch
Crouch Funeral Home
North East, MD

“I wanted to let you know we just mailed over 200 stockings to the troops. This is our third year participating in VFMC’s Stocking for Soldiers and by far the largest. Our community really jumped on board this year. We had great coverage from our local newspaper as well as one of our local TV stations. Each Labor Day our local community foundation sponsors a free concert for the community. For the past two years they have asked that those attending bring their used cell phones to donate to “Cell Phones for Soldiers.” Both of these programs have helped get our name out in front of the public. Thank you for helping us give something back to those who protect our freedom each and every day”.

Dan Calfee
Calfee Funeral Home
Beckley, WV

“Just wanted to let you know the success we had with our VFMC Stockings for Soldiers. This was our first year with the project and had no idea what to expect. To our surprise our community came out and filled 250 stockings. We were simply amazed. The PR has been great. Unfortunately we had a fallen Marine’s funeral in September, but the stockings will be shipped to a base he had been stationed previously. His family was very grateful for the generosity and the thought of honoring their son.”
Thanks. Here is a picture.
http://veteransfuneralhomes.com/downloads/stockings/stockings2.jpg

Mark Thomas
Watson Funeral Home
Galesburg, Illinois

“I just wanted to let everyone know how successful our VFMC Stockings for Soldiers project has been going for our communities. This is our first year participating with this particular project but it has simply taken off! We have had probably 200+ stockings go flying out our doors and we are anxiously waiting to see them all come back so we can send them on to the troops. We can hardly wait for next year now. The radio has been generous giving us airtime and the area newspapers has been running special press releases for us as well as stories of special interest. We are so blessed.”

Sincerely,Timothy R. Livingston

Owner, Owens Livingston Mortuary
Show Low, AZ

“The 2011 Stocking for Soldiers collection is complete and we had 212 stockings that we are sending overseas. The local Armory is sending them overseas for us. We ran 3 newspaper ads and our local news station picked- up the story and helped put us over last year total. Thanks again for all your help and support.”

Craig C. Pickelman
Funeral Director
Wilson Miller Funeral Home
Midland, MI

“Three hundred-twenty-three overseas soldiers will enjoy an extra gift for their holiday this year thanks to Peacock Funeral Chapel participating in VFMC’s Christmas Stockings for Soldiers. Free Christmas stockings were available at Peacock Funeral Chapel for anyone who wanted to decorate and fill them with various small gifts. Schools and youth groups including DECA, pre-schoolers, banks and businesses and private citizens contributed to filling the stockings. We had both newspapers at the loading dock of the post office to take pictures and get information to publish an article. Great PR. Now we are gearing up for Wreaths Across America this Saturday with the VFW, American Legion, local Boy Scouts and others.

http://veteransfuneralhomes.com/downloads/stockings/stockings4.jpg

Clay Peacock
Peacock Funeral Home
Lamar, Colorado