Military members and their families attend a Christmas party at Joint Base Cape Cod in December
BOURNE – Now that Christmas is over, the president of the Cape Cod Military Support Foundation is praising the community for their generosity towards allowing the Foundation’s annual Christmas Dinner to happen this year.
When a fire destroyed their warehouse on Joint Base Cape Cod in October, it also destroyed hundreds of toys the organization gives to the children of military families each year.
But just a month later, the party saw over 800 children receive gifts, thanks to the support of thousands of Cape Codders and even from donors across the nation.
That support began just hours after news of the fire spread: local businesses and individuals came out in force to hold toy collection drives.
President of the Foundation Don Cox said the outpouring of support revived his faith in humanity.
“The people and the generosity were just incredible,” he said. “The fire took 5,000 stocking stuffers and the storage systems and the computer, you add it all up and it was the biggest punch in the gut.”
But the good cheer didn’t stop in Bourne. Cox reported that the amount of giving was so large that it allowed the Foundation to bring some excess gifts to other military families in towns outside of Barnstable County.
Cox said he learned a hard lesson in insurance as a result of the fire. He said that insuring their property was one of the areas he skimped on, trying to funnel as much income as possible to the goals of the nonprofit.
He said that military families often have a difficult time affording even a modest Christmas due to a lower pay grade and a high cost of living on Cape Cod.
But the Foundation has now begun their planning for next year’s event; this time, with lessons learned and hearts warmed from a community which Cox said really had their backs.
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