Families Needed to Host Cape May Coast Guard Recruits Christmas Day

Operation Fireside is looking for about 100 families to host a Cape May Coast Guard recruit on Christmas Day.

Operation Fireside started back in 1981 and it's a program where families in South Jersey open their doors and invite a Coast Guard recruit from Cape May in to spend Christmas Day with them. If a recruit stationed in Cape May is far away from his or her family on Christmas, they can still spend the day in a family setting, eating dinner, watching TV, and relaxing for a bit.

In still needing about 100 families to volunteer, Georgianna Engels, administrative coordinator of the program, tells the Cape May County Herald, "This is about twice as many families as we needed for Thanksgiving, so we still have quite a ways to go.”

If you are interested in helping, you'll need to plan on picking-up a recruit from the Coast Guard base in Cape May at noon on Christmas Day and they'll need to be back by 8PM that night. For more information, call 646-8330.