Your donations to Operation Santa Claus change lives through four amazing charities. One of them is the Military Assistance Mission -- or MAM -- which helps veterans and their families. But this non-profit also honors the memory of one very special service member.
"All of this started on the counter of a boutique."
Margy Bons will be the first to tell you she never saw herself as a spokesperson and the force behind a non-profit that helps thousands of families every year. That's because it's not about her. While MAM stands for Military Assistance Mission, it also stands for Michael Adam Marzano: Margy's son who volunteered to go to Iraq back in 2005.
"He didn't have the chance to fight back -- that to me is cowardly."
Sgt. Marzano was killed in an ambush. Margy got the news on Mother's Day.
"I miss him and no matter how long it takes I still miss him. And I want everyone else to miss him, too. And to know the sacrifice that everybody has given."
Margy told me the only way she knows how to push the pain away is by putting others' needs first.
MAM helps vets with food, rent, mortgage and car payments, utilities and back-to-school costs. A small price for a debt that can never fully be repaid.
"All these years later I look up at the sky, I say,' thank you Michael', because he's the reason that we're able to do this. The only thing that he has left is his name. And I'm going to make sure I do the best with that that I can because someday I'm going to meet him again."
