Our Mission Statement

With help from volunteers worldwide, Operation Ornaments delivers handmade ornaments, spreading love, healing hearts, and bringing hope to families affected by disaster.

Who Are We?

Each year thousands suffer after surviving a natural disaster. As Carolyn spoke to survivors, they often mention missing the Christmas ornaments they lost.

At Operation Ornaments we understand we cannot replace the memories of those lost ornaments but hope we can help survivors begin to create new memories. We want these survivors to understand they have not been forgotten and each year as they trim their trees, we hope they will remember people from all over the country, and the world, cared enough to make and send an ornament. We believe disaster survivors are among the most under-served communities in the United States.

We choose those to serve when the disaster happens 10-12 months or longer before the next Christmas. Any sooner than that survivors may still be living in tents, hotels, or FEMA housing and are not ready or equipped to accept ornaments. We recruit a volunteer in the area of the disaster to commit to collect, sort, package and distribute ornaments. They also contact local agencies working with survivors and arrange for distribution in conjunction with them. Coordinators are our “boots on the ground” and meet with media outlets to explain our efforts, get the word out to survivors and to recruit crafters. We cannot serve a disaster if we cannot find a committed coordinator who lives in the area.

To date, we have served over 5,000 families.​ We hope to grow each year, enabling us to serve more and more survivors.

Our Story

Our first year serving survivors of disasters by providing handmade Christmas ornaments was 2020. We reached out to family and friends including Laura Davis, and 6 of us made a little over 1000 ornaments. That year our ornaments went to survivors of the fires in Talent and Lincoln City, Oregon.

In 2021 we remembered those in Kentucky and Tennessee who had experienced devastating floods. Hundreds of homes were lost. Unfortunately, lives were also lost. Just as Kentucky was recovering from spring flooding that destroyed homes and the only grocery store in town, remnants of a tropical storm soaked the already waterlogged ground causing more damage. Tennessee suffered severe flooding causing the loss of hundreds of homes and 20 lives. Then, hurricane Ida struck and much of the support for survivors left for the Gulf States.

In 2021 5,800 homemade ornaments were gathered created by 650 individuals from 19 states. We were able to serve close to 600 families and were overwhelmed and humbled by all the amazing support.

In December 2021 Colorado experienced a horrific firestorm destroying over 1000 homes. Carol Burton reached out to ask how we contact survivors and how we decide who to serve. Carolyn noticed she lived in Colorado and soon she agreed to help coordinate efforts there for 2022 distribution. Laura once again coordinated the efforts in Kentucky and Tennessee which unfortunately once again experienced huge disasters.

In 2022 we served the December 2021 tornado survivors in Kentucky and  Tennessee and the December 2021 firestorm survivors in Colorado. We received 20,000 ornaments from 33 states and Japan and were able to serve 1,600 families.

In 2023 we served the two largest disasters of 2022, hurricane survivors in Florida and flooding survivors in Kentucky. We also served tornado survivors in Alabama.We collected over 36,000 ornaments from 48 states, Canada, China, Ecuador, and refugees from Ukraine and served more than 2,500 families.

In June 2023 we received approval as a non-profit enabling us to attract and accept donations from individuals and businesses who can now claim the donation as a tax deduction. It is expensive to package ornaments, travel to distribution locations (meals and fuel), pay for hotels, ship ornaments, purchase large resealable bags for each family pack, purchase boxes to deliver family packs, and paper and printing costs for notes of encouragement included in each family set.

In the Media

If you are interested in reporting on our organization or the work we do, please contact us at info@operationornaments.org with the subject “Media Inquiry”.

  • News story from CBS Colorado about serving the Marshall fire survivors in Colorado (October 2022)
  • News story from 9News about serving the Marshall fire survivors in Colorado (November 2022)
  • News story from the Bowling Green Daily News on serving Kentucky tornado survivors (November 2022)
  • News story from WBKO about serving Kentucky tornado survivors (November 2022)
  • News story from WYMT about serving Kentucky tornado survivors (November 2022)
  • News story from FOX31 Denver about serving the Marshall fire survivors in Colorado (November 2022)
  • Another news story from FOX31 Denver about serving the Marshall fire survivors in Colorado (November 2022)
  • News story from WTVQ about serving the Kentucky flood survivors (November 2023)