What is Operation Toy Soldier?
A Holiday toy drive program designed to increase awareness and community involvement
Operation Toy Soldier is a nationwide initiative by Veterans Funeral Care to provide toys to the children of deployed and non-deployed soldiers, and also the children of soldiers that have just returned home.
This toy drive, thanks to Jim Rudolph, has its own website. On our site, we have listed all of the participating Veterans Funeral Care affiliates will be listed along with event pictures, drop off locations, etc.
“Why?”
We are Veterans Funeral Care and this is what we do. We support our Veterans and their families in any way possible to help repay them and thank them for their service.
Christmas time is all about the kids. What a better way to begin to repay our Veterans by ensuring their children have gifts for Christmas?
The goals of this program are to:
- Give back to our service men, women, and their families
- Bring SMILES to the faces of children
- Promote this program yearly to provide holiday gifts to military children
Background About Operation Toy Soldier
A big THANK YOU to Tim and Frankie Stewart and Tim Stewart Funeral Home. They love Veterans and they love helping Veterans in any way possible.
Tim Stewart and his family are no strangers to the military. Tim Stewart served in the United States Army with the 285th MP Company 15th MP Brigade 94th MP Battalion. Tim served our Country from April 1969 to December 1970. Frankie’s grandfather, Tim’s father, served in the Pacific Theater 1st Marine Division Guadalcanal. He was wounded in action there and received a Purple Heart. On the other side of the family, Frankie’s Grandfather Moon, Gay’s father, served in the European Theater as a medic in the Army Air Corps.
In 2010, the Stewarts became members of Veterans Funeral Care. Ever since then, Tim Stewart Funeral Home has been knocking it out of the park. Last year, Frankie Stewart discovered that there was intense stress in deployed soldier’s families especially during the holiday season and he wanted to help. Knowing that other businesses in town would support his idea to provide gifts and additional funds to soldier’s families that are in need, Frankie started Operation Toy Soldier.
Frankie then placed 55-gallon drums in his 4 funeral homes and around his community in 4 different cities. When the drums were filled, Frankie and his team delivered the toys to Kim Garrett. Kim Garrett is the Family Assistance Center Manager at the US Department of Defense and is in charge of the Georgia National Guard Family Program 48th Infantry Brigade. As the toys were delivered, this is where Kim and other officer’s wives distributed the toys to spouses of all the service branches. Thank You Kim for helping us, not only in Georgia, but across the United States.
They implemented this program last year and because of its overwhelming success, the program was adopted by Veterans Funeral Care as a national initiative in 2013.