Home-front helping hands

Alicia Robinson

Christmas came and went two months ago, but Laura Dietz and Joy

Wynkoop don’t seem to have noticed -- they just keep on giving.

Dietz and Wynkoop are a dynamic duo who formed “Operation

Gratitude” during the holidays to collect toys and gifts for the

families of Camp Pendleton Marines who were deployed to Iraq. The two

neighbors also raised money to assist Camp Pendleton families and

recently helped form a Marine Corps auxiliary league.

On Saturday, the Corona del Mar residents struck again.

Touched by the story of the Davis family -- a Marine family with

four school-age children, whose mother has Lyme disease -- Dietz and

Wynkoop helped raise money to buy household items for the family. Two

Marine wives, who act as liaisons to other Camp Pendleton families,

managed to get new furniture, and everyone who collaborated on the

project trooped over to the home of Master Sgt. Charles Davis to

surprise the family Saturday.

On the way to the base, Dietz and Wynkoop explained why they

launched their effort to help Marine families last fall.

California’s first lady, Maria Shriver, was an inspiration to

Wynkoop, who comes from a military background. Her father was a

Marine who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and her son is

now in the Marines.

When she saw Shriver on TV, encouraging people to do more for

military families, Wynkoop picked up the phone and called Dietz, a

full-time civic volunteer who donates to local food banks, the Red

Cross and her church.

“We just decided that the families of the men over in Iraq needed

help and started getting involved with some of the wives on the

base,” Wynkoop said. “We decided to start a grass-roots effort.”

Get Dietz started, and she can talk to you all day about various

families’ troubles, what kind of help they need and how hard it is to

raise a family of several children on military pay.

During World War II and the Korean War, she said, “most of the

guys that went into the service weren’t married. Now we have a really

different situation.”

People often don’t realize that military families need help, and

that’s what they’re trying to spread the word about, Wynkoop said.

Before surprising the Davis family, the two women met with Kim

McNees and Michele Beamer, the liaisons -- or “key volunteers” -- for

the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit. McNees and Beamer helped get the

furniture for the Davis family at discount prices.

Dietz also gave a hug to Amber Torrens, a young mother of four

whose husband is working on tsunami relief efforts after being

deployed in December. Torrens and her family received Christmas

gifts, courtesy of Operation Gratitude.

“It helps so much,” Torrens said of the aid she’s gotten from

Dietz and other volunteers. “It’s hard to make it all by yourself.

It’s hard to make ends meet and pay bills.”

Along with the director of the local branch of the Armed Services

YMCA, the group formed a caravan to the Davis’ house, where they set

up tables in the front yard to pile the household items and gifts

they’d brought. Once the furniture truck backed into the driveway,

the family was called outside.

Jennifer Davis, who walks with difficulty due to her illness,

cried and hardly knew what to say, except “thank you.” Soon she was

tooling around the yard on the electric scooter she received, while

her three daughters and son looked on.

Master Sgt. Davis also was pleased with the gifts, but the Davis’

oldest child, Jacob, summed things up for the whole family.

“I just feel happy now,” he told Dietz. “I just feel so happy.”

Dietz was just as satisfied.

“The old saying is that giving is getting, and the feedback that

you get from this is something you cannot put a price on,” she said.

One of the next goals for Wynkoop and Dietz is to get Camp

Pendleton’s many Marine battalions adopted by local communities, just

like Newport Beach adopted the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines. They’re

also planning to help raise money to buy a new van for the Davis

family to replace one that was totaled in an accident.

To Wynkoop, donating time and money to military families is the

least she can do.

“I just think they’re making the supreme sacrifice. They all are,

the families, the men [and] the women over there, and yet they’re not

asking for anything,” Wynkoop said. “They’re too proud to ask.”

For information on donating to local Marine families, call Joy

Wynkoop at (949) 760-8727.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson@

latimes.com.