Community support, hard work create holiday 'miracle' for troops

Photo By Brandon Honig | Staff Sgt. Conception Mesta of the Cal Guard's 40th Infantry Division discusses gift distribution with Marilyn Jones on Dec. 21 at Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos in Orange County. In 2000, Jones started an adopt-a-family program that has grown to support about 80 military families in need each year around the holidays.  

LOS ALAMITOS, CA, UNITED STATES

12.28.2015

Story by Brandon Honig 

California National Guard Primary   

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - When Staff Sgt. Conception Mesta retires next year, she’ll take one of her current responsibilities with her – one that has followed her for 15 years through several job titles, and is just too meaningful to give up.

“Little women in [neighboring communities], or Boy Scout troops, doctor’s offices … dance classes – they want to say thank you for working on the base,” Mesta said Dec. 21, as she was doggedly wrapping and sorting gifts at the Cal Guard’s Joint Forces Training Base (JFTB) Los Alamitos in Orange County. “They’re like, ‘We want to take a military family and bring gifts, just to say thank you,’ and some really go above and beyond. I’ll be like, ‘Wow, that family got a lot!’”

In 2000, when Mesta was the executive assistant to the 40th Infantry Division commander at JFTB, the unit was contacted by Marilyn Jones, who worked for the nonprofit We Care. Marilyn had found about 15 families that wanted to “adopt” a service member’s family for Christmas, providing gifts for each member, even Mom and Dad. Mesta was able to find soldiers in the 40th ID who were having a rough time financially and welcomed Marilyn’s and the community’s heartfelt assistance.

Over the years, the informal program Mesta dubbed “Marilyn’s Miracle” has grown to serve about 80 JFTB families each year, and though Mesta left her executive assistant job behind more than a decade ago, she still puts in many hours each winter – off the clock – to assist Marilyn and the soldiers at JFTB.

“It’s hard to say no [to continuing to support the program], because the soldiers know this is one of the only places they can go to get help, where it won’t be broadcasted everywhere,” Mesta said, adding that she asks no questions of the soldiers who come to her for help. “If you’re big enough to come to me and say you need help, that’s enough for me. It’s your conscience, not mine.”

Mesta, who is now JFTB’s operations and training noncommissioned officer, doesn’t put out flyers or publicize Marilyn’s Miracle. Somehow, the soldiers just find her through conversations around the base. Outside the base, the same process keeps Marilyn’s Miracle alive in the community.

“I don’t know how I’ve found the sponsors over the years – a lot of families just heard it was happening and called me,” said Jones, who deflects praise of her efforts and laughs at the moniker Marilyn’s Miracle. “It’s a Christmas miracle that just kind of popped up and just kind of grew, mostly through word of mouth. … It’s God smiling on the service people.”

Since taking on responsibility for distributing the gifts from Marilyn’s Miracle at JFTB, Mesta has become an informal point of contact for any charitable efforts benefitting the military community there. She and her family distribute hundreds of donated Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners each year, and until recently, they did the same with Christmas trees, but it finally stretched them too thin.

“From before Thanksgiving through Christmas, we put in a lot of hours, working [pretty much every day],” said Merrick Currier, Mesta’s husband, who retired from the 40th ID in 2012 as a sergeant first class. “It’s a whole family effort. We’d go over to Marilyn’s house to wrap and sort gifts, and sometimes we wouldn’t leave until midnight.” 

Currier said his family has given up some charitable efforts in the past because they felt they were stretched too thin, but when they walked away, the programs dried up. Then they would scramble to pick the programs back up again. Neither he nor Mesta is willing to let that happen with Marilyn’s Miracle.

“It’s all for the troops,” Currier said. “Some of the families aren’t doing that well, and our gift back to them is working hard to do this.”

Mesta said she could not have kept the program going without the support of Currier and her other family members, who put in so much time, effort and understanding. That’s why she and her family will continue to support the program after she retires in the spring.

“I can’t just turn the reins over, because it’s a lot of work, and there’s really no one we can trust to put such heart and soul into it,” Mesta said. “We just have to keep it going.”

• Date Taken: 12.28.2015
• Date Posted: 12.29.2015 01:40
• Story ID: 185409
• Location: LOS ALAMITOS, CA, US