Holidays ‘Fireside’ Meet-and-Greet Links CG, Hosts

CAPE MAY – The holidays can be among the hardest times for young recruits at the Coast Guard Training Center here. The training regime requires that the recruit be essentially cut off from much of the outside world including family. Limited days off base, restricted time for phone calls to family, and intense training routines, all represent the realities that recruits confront as they prepare for service in the Coast Guard.
For over 30 years, the American Red Cross has sponsored and run Operation Fireside. The program matches young men and women at the training facility, many of whom may be away from home for the first time, with local families for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The Red Cross states that it has over 300 families that participate in Operation Fireside. A family may get two or more recruits for each of the two days.
Carol Ann Allen of Belleplain admits she had 10 at Christmas last year. As numbers in the recruitment classes at the facility have decreased in recent years, some families don’t get as many recruits as they ask for. Some even list themselves as ready to drive out and pick up anyone whose plans have fallen through at the last minute.
The basics of the holiday program are simple. Families sign up and are assigned two or more recruits for either of the two holidays. Families pick up the recruits on base in the morning and arrange to have them back to the base by 8 p.m. that day. As might be expected, the first thing recruits want to do is call home.
Often families supply cell phones so a call can be made in the car on their way to the house. There are a few rules, some do’s and don’ts, that have to be observed, but the day is largely built around the host family’s holiday traditions with the recruits warmly welcomed.
This year, Red Cross added a new element to the program. For the first time since the program started in 1981, it organized a meet-and-greet in order to have host families have an opportunity to meet the Coast Guard brass from the facility.
Capt. G. Todd Prestidge, commanding officer of Coast Guard Training Center, appeared delighted with the opportunity to talk with families whose actions mean so much to his recruits. For these young men and women, Prestidge said, “Being away from home during the holidays is really hard.” He thanked the families for their continued support of the recruits and the training center.
Approximately 50 families attended the event and their commitment to the program was awe inspiring. Allen said that this was her 21st year in the program. Her deceased husband was in the Air Force and continuing the program is a way of maintaining a connection to him as well as helping the recruits.
She has had as few as two for a holiday and as many as 10. Over a 20-plus year commitment she has hosted hundreds of recruits. But it doesn’t end there. Through the use of social media like Facebook, Allen has stayed in touch with the young people she has hosted. “I have seen them get married, have kids and all of that,” she said.
Dede and Robert Pollock are “transplants” to the area from Oklahoma who live in Seaville. For 11 years in the area, the Pollocks have hosted recruits. They have seen them graduate and move on to careers. “It is a very rewarding program,” Pollock said.
They joined the program in 2003 with their neighbors Barbara and Dale Foster. The two sets of neighbors even join their assigned recruits as they alternate houses each year for a combined dessert course following separate dinners.
Back at the base, Prestidge’s staff also has a busy day including organizing the pickups, responding to any problems, and ensuring that everyone is back on time.
As one said, “We don’t rest until every last one is home and tucked in bed.”
The results are clearly worth the effort. Carol Cohen, executive director of the Southern Shore Chapter of the Red Cross thought the meet-and-greet a great success.
Leadership at the Coast Guard Training Center and at the Red Cross has changed many times over the life of Operation Fireside. The constant has been the families and their commitment to this program, along with the friendships they build, which can last a lifetime.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.