This year New York Hospital Queens (NYHQ) reached another milestone in an annual presentation of toys to representatives from the U.S. Army at the ninth FreeMAT (The Freedom Medical Aid Team) ceremony. The number of toys distributed to children of those soldiers who are stationed overseas at holiday time has now reached over 11,000 in the nine years the hospital has held the collection. U.S. Army Brigadier General Douglas Satterfield, Deputy Commanding General 412th Theater Engineer Command, accepted the toys on behalf of the men and women who are serving overseas at this time.
NYC Comptroller John Liu has participated in the initiative since its inception in 2002 and this year Senator Toby Stavisky, Senator Tony Avella, Assemblymembers Grace Meng, Rory Lancman and Edward Braunstein, Councilmembers Peter Koo and Dan Halloran were also involved. Other guests included the N.Y.C. Commissioner for Veterans Affairs, Terrance Holliday and from the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office XXX. John Sciortino, Senior V.P. & Chief Operating Officer, NYHQ expressed gratitude to those who donated toys and to the men and women who are serving in the military.
Many other schools, community and business organizations participated such as Community Board #7, the NYPD, Queens Center Mall, Bayside-Whitestone Lion’s Club, Francis Lewis High School – Junior ROTC and Macy’s Department Store. Founder of FreeMAT Peter Kwiath, Asst. Supervisor of EMS at the hospital, stated he would like to continue this program “until every man and woman serving in the military returns home”. He thanked everyone for their participation. Mr. Kwiath also announced that this year for the first time, the U.S. Army videotaped the program and planned to show it worldwide the members of the U.S. Army.