By Karin Frostholm

I regularly donate to charities but am not one to ask people for money. I have never put a charity fundraiser on Facebook before, and never thought that I ever would.

Karin Frostholm pins wings on her Marine son on July 2018 at airborne graduation. | Photo credit Courtesy Karin Frostholm

But this year was a little different.

When my July 9th birthday rolled around, I was feeling a bit sad. I didn’t really have any birthday plans and none of my friends that are usually with me for my birthday were around or available.

I also think I was really feeling down about my two middle sons, who are both in the military, being so far away from me.

My 20 year-old-son, Lance Cpl. David Boots is a Marine, a Parachute Rigger with at Camp Foster in Okinawa, Japan. He’s been gone since November 2018. My 18 year-old-son, Sailor Recruit Rogers Boots, just left for Navy Boot Camp at Naval Training Center Great Lakes on June 20, 2019.

I miss them both so much but am so proud of them for serving in the military. That’s why I decided to do a Facebook fundraiser this year for my birthday – to support them by supporting the USO, who’s by their side wherever they serve.

Karin Frostholm’s son, Navy Recruit Rogers Boots. | Photo credit Courtesy Karin Frostholm

I’ll never forget my older son calling me from the USO lounge at the Seattle Airport on his way to Okinawa, Japan in 2018. He was so exhausted, and probably a bit nervous, but also so excited because he was comfortable and being fed, and he sounded so happy.

This June, when my other son left for Navy Boot Camp, my daughter and I waited with him at the USO Boston MEPS location until he left. The USO volunteers there were so friendly and nice and made everyone comfortable and made sure the recruits shipping out were well fed. Your volunteers truly care deeply about our troops, and it shows.

It made me so happy throughout my birthday when I saw some of my friends and family making donations to my Facebook fundraiser for the USO, which totaled almost $300. They have seen my Facebook posts about my boys over the last year and a half, and they know how much love and pride I feel in them, our troops and our country.

Karin Frostholm’s Facebook fundraiser. | Photo credit Facebook

The USO shouldn’t be thanking me. I should be thanking you. Putting up a fundraiser on Facebook takes one click. What you do for our troops every day is nothing short of incredible. I’m on the USO Facebook page, as well as the USO Camp Foster page, and see on a regular basis all of the things that you do for our men and women in uniform and their families all over the world.

From this military mom, thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

- Karin Frostholm is a School Nurse at the Florence Sawyer School in Bolton, Massachusetts, and she resides in Clinton, Massachusetts with her son Eli, a marketing major at Framingham State University, and her daughter Reagan, a sophomore at Nashoba Regional High School.