Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers volunteers from Camp Humphreys decorate cookies with orphans at Ikseonwon Orphanage in Cheonan, South Korea, Dec. 21, 2024. (Eric Mendiola/Stars and Stripes)
CHEONAN, South Korea – Soldiers from the U.S. Army’s Camp Humphreys made a familiar trip over the weekend to bring holiday cheer to the children at an orphanage nearby.
The trip, organized by the Better Opportunity for Single Soldiers program, or BOSS, at Humphreys, and sponsored by the Korea Tourism Association, brought about 20 service members together Saturday with 30 children at the Ikseonwon Orphanage in Cheonan 13 miles away.
“We always look to try and make this trip happen almost monthly, but we always run into issues with planning so think this time were going to go and at least make it bimonthly,” said Sgt. Jordan T. Owens, the Camp Humphreys BOSS vice president.
Better Opportunities for Single Solder program volunteers from Camp Humphreys pose at Ikseonwon Orphanage in Cheonan, South Korea, Dec. 21, 2024. (Eric Mendiola/Stars and Stripes)
Cookies decorated by US soldiers from Camp Humphreys and orphans at Ikseonwon Orphanage in Cheonan, South Korea, Dec. 21, 2024. (Eric Mendiola/Stars and Stripes)
A U.S. soldier from Camp Humphrey decorates cookies with children at Ikseonwon Orphanage in Cheonan, South Korea, Dec. 21, 2024. (Eric Mendiola/Stars and Stripes)
The soldiers brought gifts of stuffed animals and helped decorate Christmas cookies with the children. Laughter emanated from every corner of the activity room where the hourlong gathering took place.
With their families back in the United States, the volunteers find the orphanage visit a nice way to spend time during the holidays, said Sgt. Justin Stephan, 65th Brigade BOSS representative.
“I don’t have family here in Korea, honestly its fantastic this is the second time I’ve come out here and it’s just as great as the first time,” Stephan said at the gathering. “I’ve been looking forward to this event since the last time it was pushed out. It’s great we get to engage with community; it feels like making a difference.”
Volunteers made the same trip during the 2023 holidays to the orphanage, which is run by the city of Cheonan, according to its director, Min Taeoh.
‘The children like this event, it’s an important thing for them,” he said Saturday at the orphanage. “It’s a really meaningful event.”
Over 1 million children have grown up in South Korean orphanages in the last 70 years, according to the charity Holt International Children’s Services, a child advocacy and adoption agency.
