Children of Fallen Hop on Snowball Express

Killeen: Snowball Express Honors Families Of Fallen Troops
KWTX News
Brandon Marshall
December 12, 2015

While in Dallas, the families will participate in several activities including a tour of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, a "knight" of jousting fun at Medieval Times and a private concert by Academy Award-nominated actor Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band.

KILLEEN
Some Central Texas children of military members received a special treat Saturday when they flew out of the Killeen-Fort Hood airport on a Snowball Express flight.

This was the 10th annual event put on by American Airlines and the nonprofit group.

Nearly 1,700 children and spouses of fallen U.S. military members headed out on an all-expense-paid journey to Dallas.

24 local family members will take part in the special holiday event during the next week.

Tiffanie Rodriguez of Fort Hood and her three children are among this year's group.

"They miss their father a lot and I think for them just to be able to talk about their dad and not feel so secluded, where as others do have their dad still, they can finally speak freely and not worry," Tiffanie said.

Tiffanie's husband, Army Staff Sgt. Daniel A. Rodriguez, died from his wounds after a roadside bomb exploded while he was serving in Afghanistan in July 2012.
read more here

Snowball Express Needs You

Mother Of Fallen Marine Asking All Of St. Louis To Help
Snowball Express Needs You
Teresa Woodard
Reporter
9:46 p.m. CST, December 7, 2011

(KTVI-FOX2now.com)— Even if you have no vacation scheduled and no flight to catch Friday morning, a St. Louis area woman is hoping you show up at Lambert airport anyway. She`s extending a cordial invitation to a very special sendoff.

Julie Vinnedge has started making a living by warming hearts, even though her heart is broken.

"This Christmas is very difficult for us," she said, standing in the lobby of a St. Peters, Missouri, bank, smiling at a pile of toys. "But this makes me feel wonderful."


"If they can just get one or two gifts that they can call their own, it makes their day," she said of the kids who will be on the receiving end of the toys she and her adopted Marine family have taken in. Wednesday night she was collecting toys at the Enterprise Bank's Christmas Party.

There's a sad reason this Christmas will be difficult. "Phillip should be able to be home," she said. "Last year he was going to be deployed so we were prepared. But this Christmas he should be in my living room Christmas morning."

But he won't be. Phillip Vinnedge was a 19-year-old United States Marine Lance Corporal, killed in action in Afghanistan on October 13, 2010. He's the reason she's so involved in the Marine Corps' annual Toys for Tots toy drive, and the reason she's taken on another special project, and she needs all of St. Louis on board. It's called the Snowball Express, and it departs Lambert Friday.
read more here