2012 Events

3rd Annual HOME Golf Tournament - Friday, May 11, 2012

Thunder and lightning, very very frightening. Buckets of rain, hail, sleet, wind. This is our weather in Houston the night before the 3rd HOME Golf Tournament benefiting our military. What will we do tomorrow on tournament day?

Friday, May 11th 7:30am. What do my eyes see? Clear blue skies? Just a slight cool breeze? Yes!! From my lips to God's ears. The weather is PERFECT.

As the HOME board convened in Pearland at Country Place Golf Course, my iPhone was going bonkers with text messages of good luck wishes for our day. GAME ON!

28 brave hearts came out and registered for our tournament. OK, so we had a few no shows, but 28 showed and the weather is perfect.

The 3rd Grade Choir from Cline Elementary in Friendswood braved this beautiful weather along with the JROTC from Pearland High. Once the National Anthem concluded and the JROTC retired the colors, the golfers were off to their tees. Did I mention the perfect weather?

Upon hearing the "thwack" of a golf ball I now rested a little easier in knowing the golfers were on their marks. WHEW. Has it really been a full year since the last tournament? Yes it has been a year. One year and thousands of care packages later here we are on the course again to raise funds to keep sending care packages to our amazing military. Every sleepless night, every headache, every negative result from a potential sponsor, every paper cut, every back ache and eye strain from endless hours on the computer trying to make connections to more sponsors, every minute I went over my limit on my cell phone, every over priced gallon of gas driving from store to store for donated items was worth it to hear that "THWACK" of the golf ball. It is worth 25 times that to know our military will reap the benefits of this tournament. More care packages will go out the door and end up somewhere in the world in our militaries hands. Even when the price of a flat rate box keeps increasing, HOME will find the means to ship. Our military doesn't stop and we will not stop.

People actually ask me why we are continuing to ship packages when our military is coming home. Dumfounded, I tell them our military serves all over the world. We ship wherever we have a current address to active military.

At present, I sat back and smiled to myself as I thought how do we top this next year? It will happen I have no doubt. But for now our winning teams are out there playing their hearts out. They are playing for our military. This is the day God has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

So, let me introduce to you our winning teams from this the 3rd Annual HOME Golf Tournament.

1st Place Team 147th Reconnaissance Wing from Ellington Msgt Jim Rice Maj Derek Weaver Col Kurt Leslie Col Jack Daniel
2nd Place Team TISS Robert Green Tim Ledvetter
3rd Place Team David Weekly Marshall Boyd Braydon Svoboda Jim Svehala

Congratulations to all our winners. Congratulations to all the teams for a great day. And a big THANK YOU to our military for serving our country.

Thunder and lightning, very very frightening. Buckets of rain, hail, sleet, wind. This is the weather on Friday night after our 3rd HOME Golf Tournament. God must love golf, it was a perfect day.

View More Images in the 3rd Annual HOME Golf Tournament Image Gallery

---

Annual Christmas in July Packing Party - Saturday, July 14, 2012

Toothpaste, candy, toothbrushes, wet wipes, Girl Scout Cookies, peanuts, writing paper, pens, books, magazines, more Girl Scout cookies, letters, deodorant, razors, sunscreen, shampoo, crackers, soup, chewing gum, beef jerky, slim jims, games, chess, squishy balls, paddle balls, cards, Bibles, water flavor packets, socks, wash cloths, room deodorizers,,, I could go on and on and on with what volunteers used to fill boxes for our military on Saturday at the "Christmas In July" packing party. But the best thing was seeing the smiles go on and on and on.

GREAT JOB to all who came out and worked to fill 259 care packages for the best of the best. Our American Soldiers.

Thank you each and everyone that helped in collecting donations, preparing the items, preparing the bins, taping the boxes, hauling everything to HOPE church, setting up and tearing down, cleaning up, hauling trash, then hauling all the filled boxes back to the HOME office again. I could go on and on again but I won't. LOL. I will however Thank HOPE Church for once again allowing us to invade their gymnasium for a few hours of fun and controlled chaos. I thank each of you that gave your time to come out on a Saturday afternoon. I thank HOME TEAM #1 - BARRIOS Technology Volunteer Team for all you have done to Help Our Military Endure. I thank U of H volunteers for all your help. I thank IAAP for their support and help, I thank my co-workers, family, friends and board members. And let's not forget to thank Santa Clause for showing up in his off season to cheer us on and provide us with a cool treat.

Those two little words "THANK YOU" do not seem like enough but they sure go a long way. And that is exactly where all those boxes you helped to pack on Saturday will go,,, a long way in helping our military. They do not know these boxes are coming. What a great surprise to them when they start rolling into where ever they are addressed, Kosovo, Afghanistan, S. Korea, Japan, Columbia,,, If HOME has an active military address I will be shipping them boxes. If you have an address to an active military person serving non-stateside, send it to me and HOME will send them care packages.

259 boxes of toothpaste, candy, toothbrushes, wet wipes, Girl Scout Cookies, peanuts, writing paper, pens, books, magazines, more Girl Scout cookies, letters, deodorant, ,,,Yeah I could go on. LIFE IS GOOD!

Don't forget HOME ships all year and is always in need of shipping fee donations. Cost is $13.45 per filled box.

Thank you all for your continued support. Pictures will be on the web site soon.

~trudy
President of HOME-Help Our Military Endure

View More Images in the Annual Christmas in July Packing Party Image Gallery

---

Annual Christmas Packing Party - Saturday, December 1, 2012

Where did the year 2012 go? It seems like just last week we were doing the HOME Golf Tournament, and now we just completed the Christmas packing party. WOW! Time not only flies when you're having fun,,, it completely disappears.

I made a plea for items, donations, volunteers and once again our military wins! The controlled chaos that seems to filter into every packing party, no matter how hard I try to make it a smooth event, is what brings a grand smile to my face. That and seeing the younger generation becoming more and more involved in Helping Our Military Endure.

But it is not my smile that counts. It is the smile that will come from the men and women wearing the uniform when they open those boxes. The boxes that have been filled with gratitude. Filled with love. Filled with surprises, home goodies and filled with wonderful heartfelt THANKS for a job well done in keeping our country safe.

A grateful thank you goes out to each and every one that has helped in making this chaotic packing party a huge success. Thank you for the collection drives, the donations, the cards and letters that are in every box. Thank you for your patience in reading all my emails and my constant reminders. A BIG KUDOS to our new sponsor, ADPOWER. Check their web site out at ADPOWERINC.com. At every packing party I stand in awe of everything you have helped accomplish. It never gets old.

Your accomplishments have packaged up 416 boxes on December 1st in one hour 15 minutes. I applaud all your efforts and patience as we leave 2012 and prepare to keep our Mission of HOME alive and going strong. Regardless of your political viewpoints, our country remains free and our military is to be thanked for that. All military past and present.

trudy Duhon
President, HOME-Help Our Military Endure

View More Images in the Annual Christmas Packing Party Image Gallery

---