Military Friends Foundation To Welcome Home National Guard’s 26th Yankee Brigade
Reading – Excitement & emotions will run high as family and friends gather to honor the Massachusetts Army National Guard’s 26th Yankee Brigade, returning home after a year-long tour in Afghanistan. Military Friends Foundation, a non-profit organization proudly serving Massachusetts National Guard, Reserve and Families of the Fallen, will be on hand to support the families as they await their loved ones who are expected to return to Massachusetts Thursday evening.
“This is the happiest part of our mission – welcoming home Massachusetts troops,” said Sarah Keller-Likins, Executive Director of the Military Friends Foundation. “We are working with the 26th YB families to help make their homecoming as special as possible including providing a photobooth along with hundreds of balloons and American flags, and activities for children to make the final hours pass by as quickly as possible until their Soldier comes home.”
The Military Friends Foundation is the largest non-profit supporter of homecoming celebrations across the state. Funding for these homecomings and other Military Friends programs come from the generosity of private donors and voluntary contributions from Massachusetts taxpayers on Question 32E-Massachusetts Military Family Relief Fund on the Massachusetts State Income Tax Form.
“The Military Friends Foundation helps us make valuable memories with our families. I want to say thank you to every person who makes a donation through Question 32E on their tax form – your support makes it possible to have the type of homecomings our Soldiers’ deserve,” said Jamie-Lee Moushigian, the unit’s Family Readiness Group Leader and wife of 26th Yankee Brigade Sergeant James Moushigian of Danvers, who also served in Iraq.
With more than 170 soldiers, the 26th Yankee Brigade has provided command and control, security and support operations for the nearly 9,000 U.S. and coalition forces operating in Kabul, Afghanistan and the capital region. The unit, which was formed on September 1, 2008 and based at Camp Curtis Guild in Reading, MA, traces its lineage to the 26th Infantry Division formed in Boston in 1917.
To learn more about supporting local military families and the Military Friends Foundation’s “Take 5, Give $5” Campaign , visit www.militaryfriends.org/takefive.
