A House is Made a Home for the Holidays

Just five days before Christmas, every single wish on the McMeans family’s wish list was fulfilled. For Army veteran Vasier McMeans and her four children, Caleb, 8, Tea, 6, Clarence, 5, and Demari, 3, donations of clothing, toys, food and interior furnishings helped turn a house into a home, and coming the weekend before Christmas on Saturday, Dec. 20, helped ensure happy holidays for the family. Teary-eyed, McMeans gave heartwarming thanks following the donation on Saturday. “This organization, paired with the (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) organization, has really blessed the lives of me and my children. So many families that didn’t know anything about us pitched in and gave us their all when we were lacking in so many areas. You guys have done an awesome job and I praise God for all of you guys… If you had seen where we started and where we are now, it’s because of your efforts, and I thank God for everybody.” After McMeans suffered a back injury during her service that left her disabled, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH) provided the family, who lives off less than $1,000 each month, with a home. American Legion Auxiliary Unit 155 member Rita Colton explained that the Loma Linda VA hospital helped identify the McMeans family to the Auxiliary for the group’s annual family adoption program, whereby a family in need is selected to receive donations of necessary clothing, food and even household items. The American Legion Post and the Auxiliary work with other community organizations to fundraise and gather donations to give to these families, Colton explained. This year several members of the Auxiliary unit conducted their own fundraising efforts on top of the fundraising the group does for the cause, which this year raised $400. Auxiliary members also donated several items and community group Los Conquistadores, noted for awarding student scholarships, joined this year to make sure that the McMeans family was well provided for. To help the family officially settle into their home, the groups provided the family with bedroom sets, new mattresses and new bedclothes, as well as home appliances like a new stove, refrigerator, dining table, chairs and more. “It’s everything you need to put a house together,” said Colton, the event chairperson and also a former employee of the county’s Community Action Partnership which serves families in San Bernardino County. “It was a big job, but it was a labor of love through all the networking sites.” The wish lists, and the $400 raised by the Auxiliary, went a long way, Colton said. “Each child had every single wish that they put on their wish list come true…We bought them clothing, we bought them toys, we bought them everything. We made that $400 stretch,” said Colton. At the end of Saturday’s event, where the family stood surrounded by American Legion and Auxiliary members as well as a bounty of wrapped toys and four new bicycles, McMeans’s daughter, Tea, also expressed thanks. “Everything that everyone did for us, it’s beautiful,” Tea said. “I just can’t believe this happened. It’s the greatest thing anyone has ever done for my family."