Tradition, Home, Strength and Character: Sears Heroes at Home Registry

Do you remember your kitchen growing up as a kid? I can see the Kenmore refrigerator… a prize possession in the corner. No other color available at the time than white. Mix Master purchased as a huge anniversary gift to Mom along with a variety of small appliances. Items that made it possible to have family gatherings of the magnitude that the Johansens did. Food streamed from our kitchen in Palisades Park, NJ. Mom learned to fill the house with marinara sauce from the Italian neighbors to the right, Polish stuffed veal pockets recipe came from the left. We never had boiled potatoes an fish without a fresh Norwegian remoulade sauce. The Kenmore gas stove provided the heat for a United Nations type menu that Dad loved.

Then we moved…. traumatic…. 20 miles away… but it was a move none the less. New school, new church… new everything. New House. And oh it was new. New appliances that Mom got to pick out herself – and all avocado green. Double oven, counter top stove, side by side door refrigerator. It was a shopping trip to Sears that was like none other I ever experienced! Oh the feeling of stepping into hallowed ground… new everything to experience. Dad and Mom were my heroes at home… but that was then.

And here we are now, a world ripped by war casualties seen and hidden. Changing the way folks live their lives. In the military and then out. New everything. New job, new mental state, new need for friends and family. These veterans, these heroes have been in foreign fields, fought side by side with allied troops, united in freedom’s cause, with colors of uniform badges and berets no longer the same. And they are home. Home to new needs, new forms of outreach.

The Heroes at Home program, spearheaded by Sears, provides support to service members, veterans and their families through joint effort with various nonprofit organizations. Heroes at Home seeks to improve the lives of military families in need across America by making necessary repairs, improvement or modification to their home.