Kids in military families have a Gorham Santa
GORHAM – In a Gorham warehouse Tuesday, Margo Badeau was busy wrapping and packaging gifts for children in military families.
Lately, she has fielded some heart-wrenching calls from parents.
“My husband is being deployed just before the holidays and the kids are a wreck,” she recalled one woman saying. “I would tear up,” she said.
Badeau’s husband, Marc Badeau, a business consultant, in 2007 founded Operation Tribute, then known as Operation Holiday Cheer. Recognizing sacrifices suffered by children in military families, the operation is shipping thousands of gifts to kids in nine states this year.
“People thought I was nuts,” Marc Badeau said of the initial reaction to the idea.
But, in the operation’s first year, 8,000 children in more than 140 Maine communities received gifts. Now, Operation Tribute has grown to cover New England, New York, New Jersey and Ohio.
“Our goal is national expansion in the next five years,” Marc Badeau said.
The Badeaus, who live in Gorham, have an adult daughter and a son, Jason Badeau, who graduated from Gorham High School in June and is a college freshman.
Margo Badeau, a volunteer in the Operation Tribute warehouse in the Gorham Industrial Park, said the organization provided 24,000 presents to children last year.
“It’s such a good cause,” said volunteer Becky Clark of Scarborough, busy wrapping gifts Tuesday in the warehouse.
The success of the mission depends on both individual and corporate sponsors. The Gorham High School Key Club this year donated $16,500 in a drive to help Operation Tribute.
Operation Tribute sponsors in Gorham include Gorham Savings Bank, Carter’s Auto and Top Shelf Collectibles along with Narragansett Number 1 Foundation in Buxton. Operation Tribute sponsors also include the New England Patriots, New York Giants, Time Warner Cable and several Dunkin’ Donuts locations.
Ray Fernald, a Dunkin’ Donuts general manager for 14 locations, said last year franchises in Maine raised $25,000 for Operation Tribute and the goal this year is $75,000. Customers donating $2 this week at participating Dunkin’ Donuts receive a $1 off coupon valid through January.
Todd Jamison, director of corporate sales for the Portland Pirates, donated 50 pairs of hockey tickets Monday as a fundraiser kicked off at Dunkin’ Donuts at the Washington Avenue location in Portland.
This week Operation Tribute received a national tribute. U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, Maine’s 2nd District congressman, handed Marc Badeau a framed Congressional Record at the ceremony Monday. It was the Congressional Record in which, last month, Michaud read a citation lauding the program. “For many military families, the holiday season can be a time of great sadness as children miss one or more parents stationed overseas,” Michaud read. “Through the giving of these gifts, Operation Tribute provides these children with an important measure of joy and hope.”
“Operation Tribute is a great program,” Michaud said Monday. “It’s about making children’s lives a lot happier during the holiday season.”
Capt. Ben Perry of Poland, commanding officer of 619 Transportation Company based in Auburn, which returned this year from Iraq, praised Operation Tribute.
“They reached out to their (soldiers) families,” Perry said. “Operation Tribute has been great since we returned.”
This year, shipments of Christmas presents began last month and Monday the Badeaus will deliver a truckload of presents to Fort Drum in New York.
“We ship everything individually,” Margo Badeau said, adding that each child gets a wrapped gift decorated with a yellow ribbon in a specially addressed box to each.
Presents are provided for children from newborn to age 16 in families who register with Operation Tribute between Oct. 1 and Nov. 15. Besides a present, each child gets and a thank-you letter from Operation Tribute. Margo Badeau said responses are heartwarming. One reply said it was nice to know that someone in another community or another state cared.
“It meant the world to them,” she said one parent wrote in a reply about their children.
Postal service boxes waiting to be filled were stacked to the ceiling in the warehouse room Tuesday. Plans are to wind up shipping gifts by Dec. 15.
Marc Badeau said a child’s eligibility to receive a gift is not based on need.
“This is an appreciation-based program,” Badeau
“These are the unsung heroes, particularly the kids,” he said. “It’s America’s way of saying thank you to the child.”
Surrounded by stacks of gifts boxes destined for kids of military families are Margo Badeau of Operation Tribute and its mascot Max. The Gorham-based organization is mailing thousands of presents to children in nine states.Send questions/comments to the editors.
