It was the perfect cold San Diego night. Under a sky filled with stars and on the deck of the USS Midway, hundreds of children and members of military families enjoyed a Holiday concert on Sunday December 27^th.

“Operation Jump for Joy” was designed to entertain and benefit the children of our Armed Forces.and honored Snowball Express, an international charity whose mission is to create a network of hope for the families of our fallen heroes.

“Operation Jump for Joy” provided an evening of family fun featuring live performances from entertainment entities around the globe, including a live performance from, The Jumpitz, Hollywood’s hottest emerging children’s entertainment group, Hullabaloo, JW Tumbles, the San Diego Chargers’ cheerleaders, The Wayans Brothers Boo Crew; pop star Keana; rising boy band WOW, and six-time San Diego music award winner Eve Selis crooned for the parents enjoyment.

Also on The Hangar deck, military families enjoyed a festival of fun activities along with refreshments, autographs, and sizable gift bags for each family filled with The Jumpitz CD, SeaLife Aquarium tickets, Little Giraffe Blankets, a gift certificate from JW Tumbles, a Toy-OGO ball, and more.

Micki Sander, Chairperson of Snowball Express, recently featured as “ABC’s Persons of the Week” on World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson, said, “The goal of Snowball Express is to bring joy to the children of our fallen military heroes, and watching The Jumpitz wonderful performance, it’s clear they’re the perfect type of entertainers for young people.  The Snowball Express families had a wonderful time.”

Being San Diego a military City (more than 20,000 military families live in our County), our beautiful city was the perfect venue for the event and these families were benefited by the purpose of The Snowball Express Organization, which is to create a network of hope for the families of our fallen heroes who have died while on active duty since 9/11.

The Surprise of the night was when First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the Snowball Express families through a video that was shown to the captivated audience.

The First Lady of California Maria Shriver sent a letter; “A big thank you to all of the amazing performers it has brought together for this event, as well as to Snowball Express.  You are giving our military youth an extraordinary and special gift that they will always remember.”

Congress woman Susan Davis addressed the guests with a heartfelt gratitude for the service that these military families provide to our country.  “I appreciate being a part of this very special event.  Along with our service members, military families and children also make sacrifices everyday on behalf of our nation.  Operation Jump for Joy is a wonderful way to show how grateful we are to them.”

The Hope “Operation Jump For Joy” brought to the military families and Snowflake kids of San Diego, was the perfect Christmas gift and the perfect way to end the year.