This Thursday, while Americans from coast to coast are indulging in football, family, and all the trimmings, dozens of disaster relief and humanitarian aid volunteers will be tarping roofs and stitching up wounds in Jamaica. Chain sawyers to surgeons, more than 50 Team Rubicon volunteers—known as Greyshirts—are deployed to the Caribbean island nation to serve survivors of Hurricane Melissa this Thanksgiving.
“I’m in Jamaica over Thanksgiving because that’s the opportunity to serve that was available,” says Ken Marx, a U.S. Army veteran who is serving as part of the medical team in Jamaica. “My family became accustomed to my absence over holidays long ago, and the homecoming after a deployment is always more special to me and my family than any birthday or holiday.”
Six of those Greyshirts explain why they chose to spend their holiday in Jamaica, and why this Thanksgiving they chose service to others over stuffing.
Two Thanksgiving Deployments, Nine Years and Oceans Apart
This isn’t the only Thanksgiving that RN—and chainsaw operator—Megan Painter has spent deployed on a medical mission with Team Rubicon: Her first was in 2016, when she was among the Greyshirts providing primary medical care to refugees in Northern Greece.
“While it may seem like a difficult time to be serving abroad away from our families during the holidays, I find this to be a particularly rewarding time to respond to areas of immense need.”
As Painter says in her reflection on serving over the holidays, eating a family-style meal, speaking to collective gratitude, and sharing hospitality and humanity serves as a reminder that we are one.
“This year in Jamaica, I am witnessing a fierce sense of collective humanity from local community members stepping up to serve their neighbors in need. Many are doing so while facing incredible disparities themselves. We are partnering with multi-national volunteers and sister organizations like World Central Kitchen and Samaritans Purse. Working in a beautiful, synchronized alliance in our own specialty areas. Humble, capable, and fiercely determined to bring aid to those marooned in this storm, delivering ourselves in service to the beautifully capable and enduring people of Jamaica.”
Helping Restore Homes in Jamaica Because Service is Part of His Identity
Since becoming a Greyshirt in 2015, Marine Corps veteran and Clay Hunt Fellow Breaux Burns has deployed on 11 operations with Team Rubicon, serving everywhere from Nepal to Alaska. This year, he’s helping restore homes and community spaces for Jamaicans.
“I serve over Thanksgiving because service is part of my identity. I’ve spent much of my life stepping into tough situations to help others, and the holiday doesn’t change that; it reinforces it. Thanksgiving is about gratitude, and for me, that means using the skills I’ve been given to support people who are facing real hardship. Time with family is important, but so is showing up when communities are hurting and need someone to lean on.”
Serving in Jamaica this year was important for Burns because of the devastation on the island from Hurricane Melissa. The needs there are immediate, with unstable structures, debris, and families trying to figure out their next steps, he says.
“Being here over Thanksgiving is my way of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with both the people of Jamaica and the team I’m helping keep safe,” says Burns. “It’s meaningful work, and it’s an honor to play a small part in their recovery.”
In the end, serving during the holidays isn’t about what you miss; it’s about what you give.
Plus, deploying during the holidays reminds him of what truly matters.
“You miss your family, but you also gain perspective. Many of the people we help don’t even have a stable roof over their heads right now. Holiday deployments bring a mix of sacrifice and purpose, and they highlight the best of humanity. Greyshirts lean on each other, watch out for one another, and push forward to make a difference,” Burns says. “In the end, serving during the holidays isn’t about what you miss; it’s about what you give.”
The Navy Veteran Called to Show Love Through Service
U.S. Navy veteran Randy Smith has served on 11 operations with Team Rubicon, but this is his first time being deployed on Thanksgiving.
“Knowing what I know now, after viewing the devastation in Jamaica, a person living in the USA needs to be extremely thankful for living in the land of plenty,” says. Smith. Then he asks himself what he can do to give back to others who are struggling to even have a roof over their head, clean drinking water, and food on the table.
“The best way to show love to others that we know and those we do not know is to indiscriminately give of my time, skills, and financial resources. It just so happens that this year the chance to do that falls during the week of Thanksgiving.”
A U.S. Air Force Veteran Called to Give a Blessing to a Country That Has Lost Much
Since hammering his first nail as a Greyshirt on Team Rubicon’s Houston rebuild project, Air Force Veteran and author Darrell Reeves has served on 22 operations with Team Rubicon.
“I have so much to be thankful for. I have been blessed. My wife Erica encouraged me to come. I wanted to do what I could to bless Jamaica and its people who lost so much,” says Reeves.
“This work is not for everybody. Mucking out, sawyer cutting, roof tarping can be very challenging work. It’s taxing to your body but rewarding to your soul. The ability and the willingness to unselfishly give of yourself is something I have come to admire. The holidays will come and go. I will always remember my Thanksgiving in Jamaica serving those in need.”
The Nurse Serving Jamaica in Honor of a Friend
RN and trauma nurse Laura Welsh is becoming a regular medical and humanitarian aid volunteer with Team Rubicon. Since first serving at the Navajo Nation with the nonprofit during the COVID-19 pandemic, she has also volunteered in Guatemala and now in Jamaica.
“I chose to deploy over Thanksgiving because I know it’s a time when fewer people are able to step away from family obligations, and the need doesn’t pause for the holidays. I’m also missing my girlfriend’s daughter’s second birthday and a visit from family, which wasn’t an easy decision, but they were incredibly supportive of me serving,” says Welsh.
“Knowing I can be of use during a time when others may not be available made the choice clear.”
Plus, spending her Thanksgiving serving others is a kind of way to honor a lost friend.
“This Thanksgiving falls on the death anniversary of a very close friend of mine, Randy Hansen, a Marine veteran who struggled with survivor’s guilt. He passed on November 27th, 2013. Even now, I catch myself wanting to call him and tell him about this deployment, because he’d think it was pretty incredible,” says Welsh. “This deployment feels like something Randy would have wanted to do with me. He would’ve jumped at the chance to be part of core ops while I was on the medical side. We both grew up in Florida, so we understood firsthand how devastating hurricanes can be. Being here feels like honoring him in a meaningful way.”
Serving during the holidays may not always be easy, she says, but when you carry the stories of the people you’ve loved—and lost—into the work, it becomes a privilege to show up for others in their hardest moments.
“Being here and seeing the conditions people are facing—their injuries, the homelessness, food and water insecurity—it hits hard. And yet their grace and resilience, even in the middle of so much loss, is both humbling and inspiring. It makes me wish there was even more I could do.”
Thanksgiving Service as Coincidence
“I’ve served with Team Rubicon on a number of holidays now, and even though it takes me away from family, it is fulfilling to give back when the help is needed most. Plus, it’s special to celebrate a holiday with my fellow Greyshirts. It’s a chance for me to reconnect with service-minded folks and often military veterans like myself,” says U.S. Army veteran and Greyshirt Adam Despang.
“It’s coincidental that I’m here over Thanksgiving. I came because people needed help, and I had the capacity to help. Serving communities in need on Thanksgiving in particular is such a great way to demonstrate the spirit of the holiday.”
The Disaster Survivors Intent on Turning the Tables
U.S. Army veteran and medical translator Doel Salcedo knows a thing or two about disasters—and not just because he has responded to them nearly 20 times over the past five years with Team Rubicon.
“As a Puerto Rican, I learned how to become resilient pretty quickly. I was 15 years old when Hurricane Eloísa hit the island in 1975 and led my family to safety after our home was flooded out. Later, as a ROTC cadet in 1979, I also responded to Hurricane David to help people in my hometown and the surrounding areas. What is interesting is that all these storms happened before Thanksgiving. When you have the experience of truly being able to give thanks for your life and the things that remained after the storms, you learn to be resilient, and you want to teach others the same. Now, when the time comes and the call to action is received, I don’t think twice about serving others in need.”
For Salcedo, the holiday is less about thanks and more about giving, which is why he’s spending it in service in Jamaica.
We know that the people of this island are in need. So I am giving of my time, talent, and treasures to help those in need. There is no better Thanksgiving than that.
Marine Corps Veteran Joel Morales knows the feeling.
“I am from the island of Puerto Rico. I know what my family went through during Hurricane Maria: No help, no hope. I went there with a few totes and lots of anxiety. I felt that sadness and desperation with them. A tarp never came; nobody mucked out. Every childhood memory, lost. The house, lost,” says Morales, reflecting on that disaster from his deployment in Jamaica.
“These disasters don’t take breaks, they don’t look at the calendar, they don’t ‘work around your schedule.’ My parents may both be passed away now, but I promised myself then that I would not let that happen to anyone if I could help it. So, I deploy, I go help.”
That doesn’t mean Morales doesn’t miss his wife and sometimes even question his decision to serve in often austere conditions on holidays when he could be home, celebrating with friends, and surrounded by the comforts of home. Still, he goes.
“I am missing Thanksgiving, I am missing my anniversary. But I see the images, I see the news of something that’s probably forgotten to most people, and it reminds me of why I joined in the first place,” says Morales. “Because I made a promise that I would help, and because I care. And I can’t stop caring. Because I am with people who care just as much as I do. Because I want my parents to be proud, I want my wife to be proud, and I want my family to be proud. And I am going to keep my promise to help. The storm didn’t look at the calendar, and I didn’t either. I am serving through a holiday with my other family, my Team Rubicon family, because I care. Happy Thanksgiving.”
