Marines

Second annual Elf Day helps families decorate

3 Jan 2013 | LCpl. Joshua W. Grant Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune

Service members are deployed across the globe this holiday season leaving spouses back home to decorate. Often times military spouses are unable to hang lights, or bring out the old dusty boxes or trees from the attic without their spouse. With the help of Atlantic Marine Corps Communities spouses no longer have to worry.

Numerous calls were made for this year’s annual Elf Day through AMCC housing. With the calls came volunteers ready to help service members with their festive needs.

Elf Day was established to assist the spouses of deployed service members because there can be times when it’s just impossible to decorate otherwise, said Dixie Lanier-Johnson, strategic marketing manager for AMCC housing.

Calls ranged from setting up giant inflatable lawn decorations, to hanging lights and even things such as getting the family’s Christmas tree from the attic.

Brittany Gaines, a military spouse whose husband is deployed, said she called because she was able to hang some of the families Christmas lights but with small children in the house to take care of, there just wasn’t time to do it all.

“This is a great service for the community because otherwise there would be hardly any decorations up for Christmas when my husband returns,” said Gaines.

Family members even made phone calls for their loved ones. In the case of Linda Sklar, both her daughter and son-in-law were unable to decorate the house.

Sklar said she expected her son-in-law home from deployment already, but is thankful for AMCC housing and Elf Day to ensure the house gets decorated in time for Christmas.

“I think it’s a wonderful service to the community. I don’t know how we would ever decorate without help,” said Sklar.

Volunteers worked tirelessly all day to ensure everyone’s needs were met. Decorations were hung and lights were plugged in, and for some families whose Christmas previously seemed dim, Elf Day and AMCC housing shed some helpful light on the situation.


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