Description
Tennessee Marine Family is a non-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization intended for all family members and loved ones of Marines from Tennessee. However,
we do have members who have loved ones in other branches of our military and from other states. We love and support them just as we do our Marines. Many of us have shared the trials and tribulations
of our Marines' deployments to many countries around the world. The organizatino's purpose is to share information and support to each other
as our Marines and military personnel continue their service.
We meet the third Saturday of ever month at 12:00 (noon) for food, fun and fellowship!! We have our luncheons in Nashville and meet at a variety of locations. We have had anywhere from 30 to 125 people in attendance. We have met at the VFW Post and several area churches have been kind enough to allow the group to use their facilities.
We have members from all over the United States and Canada, not just Tennessee. The members who live close enough to attend our luncheons
come from Knoxville, Memphis, Mississippi, Chattanooga, Cleveland, Paducah, Kentucky and many other towns in between.
We conducted our first TMF package drive for our Marines who are deployed overseas in June of 2004 and mailed 104 packages weighing more than
1,000 pounds. Our Marines were very appreciative of that. We conducted our second TMF package drive on October 16, 2004. We packed over 300
boxes to our deployed Marines and servicemen and women, weighing over 3,000 pounds at a cost of over $6,000.00! The outpouring of the
community has been tremendous and this has been a huge success. Our third package drive took place on Saturday, January 15, 2005 at Crossroads Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee. Our fourth package drive was May 21st at Crossroads Community Church in Franklin. We packed and shipped 300 boxes to our troops who are currently deployed!! We again packed and shipped over 300 boxes in November of 2005 and what a joy it was for our troops! The boxes were filled with goodies and Christmas stockings!! We just shipped 119 boxes that we called "Christmas in July" to our troops. They have arrived and the troops were delighted to receive them.
Tennessee has lost 17 very precious Fallen Heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan, 1 Marine in Camp Pendleton during a training accident, 1 Marine from Kentucky whose mother is a member of TMF, and 1 Marine who served in Vietnam whose remains were returned in 2005. TMF is so honored to have all of them within its membership. These families are very special to TMF and we continue to love, honor and support them in any way possible.
We had our first Annual Gold Star Family Banquet on September 17, 2005 for the families of our Fallen Heroes. Families came together from all across the country to join us for this wonderful event honoring our Marines who have given the ultimate sacrifice. Our banquet was at Crossroads Church in Franklin, Tennessee. This was a catered event and everyone came together to support our Gold Star Families. A special presentation was shown to honor our Fallen Heroes. Our 2nd Annual Gold Star Family Banquet will be held in September.
