On Dec. 7, nearly 1,000 American Airlines team member\nvolunteers worked with the Gary Sinise Foundation to bring more than 1,700\nfamily members of fallen soldiers to Orlando, Florida, for five days of fun and\nfellowship at the 14th Annual Snowball Express. The event offers inspirational\nprograms, fostering critical peer-to-peer support for them during the holiday season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the trip, families visited Walt Disney World\u00ae Resort\nin Orlando, Florida, where they had direct access to complimentary resources\nsuch as counseling services; application support for educational scholarships;\neducation about and access to medical and government benefits; financial\ncounseling and assistance; mentoring; and aid for those with special needs or\ndisabilities. Gary Sinise Foundation Snowball Express (GSF SBE) offered a\nvariety of activities and entertainment, including a concert from Gary Sinise\nand the Lt. Dan Band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Gary Sinise Foundation Snowball Express annual event is\nabout honoring our fallen heroes and their families, who continue, day in and\nday out, to endure the cost of war,\u201d said Elizabeth Fields, COO of the Gary\nSinise Foundation. \u201cWhile we can never truly repay the debt we owe these\nfamilies, we can strive to show each of them our appreciation and gratitude\nwhenever and wherever possible. With the support and generosity of the American\npeople and wonderful sponsors like American Airlines, we are honored to be able\nto give a little back by lifting spirits as we take these families to the\nhappiest place on earth, the Walt Disney World Resort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the official airline of GSF SBE, American is transported\nthe families from 87 cities via chartered and commercial flights. American\u2019s 13\ncharter flights will brought the families to Orlando International Airport from\nevery corner of the world, some stopping at up to three locations to pick up\nadditional participants along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis event highlights the caring nature of the American\nteam,\u201d said David Seymour, Senior Vice President of Operations at American and\ngraduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. \u201cI\u2019m honored to\nwork with so many generous colleagues, not only those who have volunteered\ntheir time to fly and serve the families in the air, but those who have spent\ncountless hours coordinating gate-side celebrations in scores of airports\naround our system. Gary Sinise Foundation Snowball Express is a remarkable\nprogram that continues to impact Gold Star families, and it is our deep\nprivilege to partner with the foundation to honor them. As a company, and as a\nnation, we can never forget those that made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
American team members volunteer their time in a variety of\nways, including hosting special send-off celebrations at each of the departure\nairports, staffing the flights, assisting with activities, \u201cdecking the gates\u201d\nwith holiday decorations and providing refreshments and entertainment \u2014 all to\nmake sure Snowball Express families have a remarkable experience they\u2019ll\ntreasure forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTen years ago in Atlanta, my general manager told me we\u2019d\nhave the honor of hosting one of the Snowball Express charter stops at our\nstation,\u201d Nashville Customer Service Agent and Snowball Express volunteer\ncoordinator Tammy Lake-Meyers said. \u201cThe whole team pulled together to create a\nwinter wonderland departure for the families and I\u2019ve passionately volunteered\nevery year since.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tammy and hundreds of fellow American team members donate\ntheir time and talents each year to the families of those who\u2019ve made the\nultimate sacrifice. \u201cWe hear a lot from the parents about how different their\nchildren are when they\u2019re at Snowball,\u201d Tammy said. \u201cThey can be happy and\nrelax a little and not feel bad about it. Seeing the impact we have on these\nfamilies and knowing we\u2019re making a difference in their lives is incredibly\nrewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The annual Snowball Express event began in 2006, with a\nletter written by a fallen soldier to his wife, only to be opened should he\nperish in battle. While the letter expressed many hopes, one wish was that they\nvisit Disneyland. Inspired by the letter, Snowball Express was created to bring\ntogether the children and surviving spouses of fallen U.S. military heroes for\na healing retreat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more information about the ways American supports\nmembers of the military, veterans and their families, or to donate AAdvantage\u00ae\nmiles to help military nonprofits, please visit aa.com\/ourheroes. To learn more\nabout the Gary Sinise Foundation\u2019s Snowball Express program, please visit\ngarysinisefoundation.org. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Dec. 7, nearly 1,000 American Airlines team member volunteers worked with the Gary Sinise Foundation to bring more than 1,700 family members of fallen soldiers to Orlando, Florida, for five days of fun and fellowship at the 14th Annual Snowball Express. The event offers inspirational programs, fostering critical peer-to-peer support for them during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/snowball-mapedit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14427,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14425\/revisions\/14427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}