Stockings for the Troops collection at a Laguna Niguel school has special meaning thanks to one Marine dad
LAGUNA NIGUEL — Hayden Nieznanski generally keeps quiet when it comes to talking about his father’s deployment with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
It’s a topic he avoids — mostly because he misses his dad.
Expand
But on Thursday, Nov. 15, the 10-year-old was beaming talking about Master Sgt. Jeremy Nieznanski, and what he does as part of the 13th Combat Logistics Battalion.
“He’s the boss of the boss of the people that fight,” Hayden explained, as he sorted some of the items he and his brother Max, 5, were packing into a Christmas stocking. “He’s in the military and he protects people. It makes me proud.”
Hayden and Max were among 50 students from Bergeson Elementary School’s YMCA afterschool program who spent Thursday filling holiday stockings with Starbucks coffee packages, granola bars, Cup O’ Noodles, gum, candy, and handwritten notes thanking troops for their service. The two brothers included a special note to their father.
The items were collected as donations from the school community over the past two weeks as part of an annual countywide YMCA program known as Stockings for the Troops, an effort that acknowledges the service of troops overseas during the holidays.
The program was launched in 2006 by Peterson Elementary School YMCA volunteer Jasmina Muller, whose husband was deployed to the border in San Diego with the United States Border Patrol. At the time, the program helped provide Thanksgiving dinners to those service members. Since then, it has expanded to 70 elementary school sites throughout Orange County.
Michelle Becerra, childcare director at the YMCA at Bergeson, has organized the annual project for 11 years. She said this year’s Stockings for the Troops had greater meaning than the others because of the personal connection.
Becerra met Amanda Nieznanski — Hayden and Max’s mom — over the summer after she, the two boys and infant son, Maverick, relocated from Camp Pendleton to Laguna Niguel while her husband did pre-deployment training.
Amanda Nieznanski, who works full-time in cyber security and is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of San Diego, needed help watching her sons after school.
After meeting Nieznanski, Becerra asked her if this year’s Stockings for the Troops collection could benefit her husband’s unit, part of the 13th Marine Expeditionary unit that left San Diego on July 10 for a Western Pacific and Middle East deployment with the Essex Amphibious Ready Group.
“We’re not the type to put ourselves front and center,” said Amanda Nieznanski. “But, I felt like this was important. It’s proven to have been a really positive experience for the boys. They won’t have their dad for the holidays but this is a first positive step forward. Everything has been so negative with him being gone. Giving this to him, the boys are super excited about that. They’re excited to be part of something big. Being a military child isn’t easy.”
The couple has been married for 10 years and Jeremy Nieznanski has been on five deployments during that time. Hayden has attended four schools. This year, before his deployment, Jeremy Nieznanski was regularly gone from the family, training abroad and at Marine Corps Airstation Twentynine Palms. He missed Maverick’s first words and steps.
In his absence, his wife has had to fill the role of both mother and father. Though she has some access to her husband via Skype and email, she can’t count on regular communication.
“Exciting things happen in our world and I can’t reach out, or terrible things happen,” she said. “It’s really hard to play both sides. When he’s gone, you have to live without that person. The hardest part is keeping them relevant. I’m always talking about him with the kids.
“My oldest has never wanted to talk about his deployment,” she said. “Now with this project he’s so excited and he talks about it all the time.”
That excitement has spread to the other students in the YMCA program at Bergeson. This year’s donations reached an all-time high.
“Emotionally, we’re also much more involved,” Becerra said. “The kids were able to put a name and face to it. Knowing it’s someone in our own YMCA family makes it much more special.”