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Volunteering Marine family wins award

Thirteen-year-old Jordan Leanes fixes up broken bikes and donates them to charities. His twin sister Syvannah organized a project to help wounded warriors through their church.

The twins, along with the other five members of their Marine Corps family — volunteers all — were named the National Military Family Association’s family of the year in the association’s 40th anniversary celebration Oct. 28.

It was all about military families, from first lady Michelle Obama’s videotaped message honoring and pledging support to military families, to videotaped messages from each service’s senior leader describing the accomplishments of the nominated families. And while members of Congress and a number of senior defense and civilian officials attended, the stars on stage and the constant focus were the military families.

Before he presented the award to the Leanes family, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, recognized military families “past, present and future.”

“And we as a nation must never forget the families of those who have fallen. It’s our moral obligation never to forget their sacrifice,” he said.

The Leanes family was one of seven nominated — one from each of the military services, including the Coast Guard, the Public Health Service and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

“We were really surprised,” said Kristy Leanes, wife of Marine Sgt. Dennis Leanes. “This is such an honor.”

In addition to volunteering to run Boy Scout meetings, participate at church, coach sports teams and lead family readiness meetings, the Leanes also help their neighbors. Kristy Leanes can replace gaskets and install transmissions, so she helps her neighbors when their cars break down. Among other things, she sews baby clothes for families in need. She’s teaching her daughters to sew, too: All of the four older girls — Syvannah, 13; Bethany, 10; Marissa, 9; and Emily, 6 — made their own dresses for the Oct. 28 event. The youngest, Karianne, 4, helped her mother make her dress.

Brother Jordan wore his Boy Scout uniform to the event.

“Giving to others — giving more than receiving, is the most important thing to us,” said Dennis Leanes. “If you have it to give, you might as well give it up to someone else who is less fortunate than we are. If we were in that state, we would want somebody to do that for us.”

The senior leaders who presented the awards to the families appeared to enjoy themselves during the event — Marine Lt. Gen. Duane Thiessen, deputy commandant for programs and resources, was seen carrying sleeping 4-year-old Karianne Leanes, her face pressed against his three stars, an hour or so before he presented the Marine award to the Leanes family.

The finalists:

Army Family of the Year: Command Sgt. Major Kevin Nolan and family, Fort Riley, Kan.

Navy Family of the Year: Lt. j.g. Joshua Caldwell and family, Kailua, Hawaii

Air Force Family of the Year: Master Sgt. Wayne and Technical Sgt. Thane Ojala and family, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

Coast Guard Family of the Year: Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Aaron Udland and family, Juneau, Alaska.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Family of the Year: Cmdr. Shepard Smith and family, Norfolk, Va.

Public Health Service Family of the Year: Cmdr. Dana Hall and the Horesh family, Overland Park, Kan.