Military spouse Christin “Lexi” Fontaine believes in spreading kindness. Married to active duty Air Force Staff Sgt. Sean Fontaine, Lexi saw the perfect opportunity to help out other military families, and put a smile on the faces of children, when she learned about Operation Homefront’s Holiday Meals for Military program this past Easter, in partnership with Food Lion.
“Obviously, we couldn’t do a get together because of COVID, but we knew a lot of people needed meals,” Lexi said. “The $50 gift card from Food Lion helped us so much because we ended up taking meals to 17 families. People were shocked about it. They asked how much it was and I said it’s free, it’s about you getting an act of kindness.”
The gift card also helped Lexi and a few other families pool their resources to make Easter more fun since activities were canceled because of the pandemic. They got 500 plastic eggs and bags of candy and then hid the eggs in the yards of those families who have kids. Families sent Sean and Lexi photos and videos of their Easter eggs being discovered the next day.
“Any time kindness can be used to amplify kindness that’s always a really cool thing,” she said. “The more seeds of community compassion we plant the more we are going to breed that around us. For me, what’s really cool about it is kindness is a ripple effect. Even with Operation Homefront being an organization, you can help amplify the kind of things I can do for people and the more it continues to ripple outward.”
Lexi said learning that donors, like Food Lion, are there to help military families has been an added to comfort to what can be a difficult lifestyle. She is very appreciative of the support.
“It indicates to me,” she said, “as a spouse of an active duty service member, that there are people both as individuals and organizations who do care and will do what they can to make sure our military families and servicemembers are ready and able to take on the craziness of what military life can throw at you.”
