Helping to spread cheer to military abroad

Everyone knows that one of the hardest parts of active military service is being stationed away from home, and the pain of being away from one’s friends and family is two-fold during the holiday season. Most of us are thankful for the sacrifice of our country’s active military personnel — however, many overlook the sadness and anxiety placed on the family of an active military member waiting for him or her at home.

A few years ago, Sharone Bartolomeo, mother of United States Marine Corps Veteran Cpl. David Bartolomeo, was at home in Lynbrook, proud of her son’s service to his country but saddened that David was deployed on a ship in the Middle East and was not going to be home during the Christmas holiday season. Admittedly feeling a bit anxious and frustrated about David being deployed, Sharone took to the Internet to see how she could pitch in to make active military members more comfortable during the holidays.

While doing this search, Bartolomeo stumbled upon the Navy for Moms program. This is a national program that seeks donations of individual-sized snacks, candy, toiletries, socks, card games and the like to be gathered and packed into separate care packages and shipped to deployed U.S. Marine and Navy servicemen and women throughout the world.

Bartolomeo was enamored by the project: Navy for Moms allowed her to be involved with a charity that assisted military members, and also fulfilled her need to have David and other military members know that they were loved and missed at home. She and her other son, Dan, set a goal to gather enough supplies to fill 50 care packages. Sharone and Dan put together a flyer that was distributed throughout the Lynbrook School District, requesting donations of these supplies. The response was more generous than they had expected, and they were able to fill 114 care packages! Last year, the collection had another strong drive, with 95 care packages filled. This year, the Bartolomeos have set a goal to fill at least 80 care packages. Due to their two prior successful supply drives, they have a good feeling that they will surpass that.