VFW POST 5061
Family Friendly Post Serving Veterans and their Families
Christmas for Soldiers
“To see what Fort Carson Christmas for Soldiers is all about, you really need to be there.” –Ron Lattin, Post 5061
On Thursday, December 13, members of Post 5061 including Bill Costa and Ron Lattin, with help from five other Posts and Auxiliaries, delivered Christmas to 12 Gold Star families at Fort Carson. Our Post donated $1000 and the Auxiliary donated $500 to the project. With the money and donations from other Posts and organizations, they provided over 121 wrapped presents, 12 holiday food baskets and sent 15 boxes of items to soldiers in Afghanistan. At the event, each family spent time with Santa at which time they were given their presents. Each child was allowed to open up 2 presents and had to take the rest home to open on Christmas. One family had to take an Uber to the party. The mother had to sell the car when her husband died because she couldn’t afford the car payments. Volunteers loaded up their own vehicles with the families’ toys and food basket and drove them home. Volunteers are working with local dealerships to get the family a car.
Another family was thankful for the food basket. Up to that point, they didn’t know what they were going to have for Christmas dinner.
The project managed mainly by Post 5061 members, coordinates with Charlie Watkins at Fort Carson to make sure the event is successful. Watkins works with the Gold Star families to gather Christmas lists and then gives them to Ron Lattin. Lattin and his volunteers than purchase the toys and food. A local organization wraps all of the toys. Presents ranged from small toys, to bikes to motorized vehicles that kids could drive.