Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Backpack Brigade: Thanks for Enlisting!

mmessina
Adventurer C

The children of deployed servicemen and women sacrifice a lot when their parent (or, in some cases, both parents) leave home to serve our country.  So when it came time to plan this year’s Companywide Share the Spirit event, we didn’t have a very hard decision to make once we learned about Operation Homefront.

Operation Homefront is an organization that works to provide emergency assistance and morale to our troops, to the families they leave behind, and to wounded warriors when they return home.  The organization serves all branches of the armed forces, including active duty, Guard, and Reserve. One of their major needs this year was new school supplies for the children of the families they support; thus was born The Southwest Airlines Backpack Brigade! 

The call went out to every SWA location in all 64 of our cities asking for donations of three-ring binders, markers, colored pencils, ballpoint pens, highlighters, pencils, pink erasers, pocket folders, kids’ scissors, pencil sharpeners, and pencil cases—and boy did our Employees come through!  The donations came in by the truckload, and we were able to exceed our goal of filling 1,000 backpacks for some very deserving boys and girls!

Once all the supplies were collected and sorted at SWA Headquarters, several of our Culture Committee Members volunteered their time to stuff the pink and green camouflage book bags. Once they were ready to go, a military cargo truck joined us on campus to carry the packed bags off into the sunset-- but of course we couldn’t let them go without a special, Southwest-style celebration!

Representatives from the military and Operation Homefront joined Herb and Colleen** and Southwest Employees in one of our Maintenance Hangars to present backpacks full of school supplies to three very appreciative Operation Homefront Military Families.   (**The Backpack Brigade project was in honor of Herb and Colleen and their inspirational leadership of Southwest and their unwavering support for education and the military.) 

Hundreds of SWA Employees lined the fence along the runway at our Headquarters behind Dallas Love Field waving red, white, and blue pompoms as Herb and Colleen led the Military Truck (filled with 1,000 backpacks!) to our Dallas Cargo Facility for shipping.  Within two days, Operation Homefront offices in Chicago, San Diego, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio, El Paso, Columbus, Nashville, and Portland received their backpacks and couldn’t wait to get them in to the hands of deserving families in their areas! 

Since so many of our Southwest Employees have had family members in the military, and so many have served themselves, this particular project hit us very close to home.  But, no matter what the cause, when a call to action is sent out to our SWA “troops”, there is never a doubt that expectations will be exceeded and all needs will be met.  So, to all the Employees who donated supplies, wrote sweet notes to the schoolchildren, and came out to “back the Brigade”, the Share the Spirit committee sincerely thanks you.

And to all the kids out there who give us your moms and dads so that we have the Freedom to Move About the Country, the entire Southwest Airlines Family sends our LUV and thanks to you!

 

 

5 Comments
cday
Frequent Flyer C
We got to visit with some of the Denver kids who received backpacks at yesterday's Provisioning Denver with LUV event. They were so sweet and appreciative. They really do need all the community support they can get! Thanks everyone for donating! And great job putting this initative together!
cwelch
Adventurer C
This was my favorite project to be a part of at Southwest to date! Thank you to Operation Homefront for its year-round efforts to provide for the families of our deployed service men and women. And thank you to Southwest for supporting this worthy cause. I was overwhelmed by the positive and generous repsonse of our Employees.
Anonymous3567
Explorer C
I think this is a wonderful project you do for these children of service members. My husband was in the Air Force for 30 years during the Vietnam years and I wish someone had done this for our children. I would like to say we have a son that is in Baghdad now for 6 months and maybe 9 months and he is a government contractor and he has a young daughter that will be six in Oct. and it is a very hard time for these children also.
Heidi7
Explorer C
I have been searching for a contact email or address to thank all of those who contributed to Backpack brigade. We are at Fort Huachuca and a nighbor NCO brought the bags to my children the night before school started. We had never heard of such an organization and my children were so excited for all of the goodies and the backpacks. I am grateful to a company that cares about the families of deployed soldiers. This is true support! What an unexpected gift and boost for our new school year. Thank you for your generosity! And, thank you for the handwritten notes in each bag. Gratefully, Heidi
Anonymous1355
Explorer C
Besides Operation Homefront and its volunteers, several organizations make this wonderful program possible. Sponsors include Dollar Tree, General Dynamics, and Hanover Direct. A warm thanks to all involved for their generosity!