Sergeant Michael Hearty

New Orleans, LA

When I was around 6 years old, me, my mom and sisters lived in New Orleans, LA. My mom was working 2 jobs to make ends meet and we didn't have a lot of toys. A few days before Christmas, my mom took me and my sisters to a church in downtown N.O. so that we could go and pick out a toy for Christmas. When we arrived, I saw a man in a blue uniform who was asking me what toy I wanted for Christmas; he picked me up and helped me high so that I could see all the toys. I picked a firetruck out. The man then told me he was a Marine and that he was doing this because he was Santa's helper. I took that toy home and never forgot what that meant to me; a few years later I knew how much that helped my mom make Christmas for us when times were hard. I always said that I would be a Marine, while I was enlisted I became a recruiter in Hattiesburg, MS, and that is when I was able to pay back that Marine for what he had done for my family. I did the first Toys for Tots program in Hattiesburg in 1991 for that area and collected over 500 toys. The next 3 years I was able to collect over 1,500 toys every year in Hattiesburg and give them to the kids so that they would have a great Christmas. I served 11 years and am always proud of being a Marine and will never forget my brothers. Semper Fi