CLEARFIELD—On July 3, 2013, Antionette Martinez de Stapley lost her husband while he was on deployment with the U.S. Army in Qatar. Tracy Stapley was a first sergeant in the army and had 26 years of service and was known for giving back by helping others.

“He was there for his soldiers,” said Antionette. “So in 2015, Operation Hero started as a small, very small nonprofit. We knew we wanted to give back and help others just as he did and that was our goal.”

In 2015, they held their first 5k, she said. “We were able to give back to families and organizations that helped us right after losing Tracy. And the next year in 2016, it grew to include our boot display.”

There are three pillars to Operation Hero, said Martinez de Stapley. “First is education. We believe in helping our service members and their families in understanding how important it is to have their documents updated, and also educating our community about the loss of our heroes, our service members and the traditions of the military.”

Second is to give back, she said. “We give back through money raised at our Memorial Day event. We give the money back to helping families of the fallen, active service members and their families and veterans, so those that are in need, if they need help with groceries, making a car payment, making a rent payment, etc. We give back to them.”

The third pillar is honor, said Martinez de Stapley. “We honor all of our service members from the state of Utah that have died while serving, so that means they were actively serving, whether it was active duty, a reservist or in the National Guard. We honor them with a boot display that we put out over Memorial Day weekend, because Memorial Day is for remembering our fallen service members.”

Each boot represents a service member who died while on active duty. Courtesy photo

 This year, Martinez de Stapley said they had 400 boots. “These boots, each boot, represents a service member and it has the American flag and their branch flag and then a tag with their rank, name, their branch of service and their angel date.”

Also some may have a short paragraph that the families have submitted telling their story, she said. “We also give the opportunity to families to decorate the boot. So the decorated boots are all different. They tell the story of their loved one, which is really neat to come and see. The boot display really takes your breath away when you see that many boots.”

These are service members from all over Utah, said Martinez de Stapley. “We know we might not have all of them. We are always looking or we may get a name and we will put a boot in the display as soon as we hear.”

 Operation Hero is really about giving back and helping others, she said. “And reminding those families that have lost a service member that they are not forgotten and neither are they. So this year we are starting a new program called the legacy card. That is a card for our family members who do not have a military ID.”

Martinez de Stapley said they are reaching out to businesses and organizations about offering a discount or something to those family members that they can receive either throughout the year or maybe over Memorial Day weekend. “It’s a reminder that they are not forgotten also.”

Operation Hero is an all volunteer nonprofit organization, she said. “None of the board members take a paycheck. “Nobody that comes in and helps takes any money. All the money that comes in goes right back out to helping the families and the service members.”

The money comes mostly from the 5ks, said Martinez de Stapley. “So the big event that we hold is our Memorial Day event and it’s called Honor and Remember Utah’s Fallen Service Members.”

Over the past 10 years they have been at the Warriors Over the Wasatch Air Show at Hill Air Force Base, she said. “That was our very first showing. We set up the boots at the air show. We started doing it at Station Park and Mountain View Village. For the last two years, we have been at the Ogden Union Station.”

Along with the boot display they have displays of military uniforms that date back to World War II and others from different eras and different branches, said Martinez de Stapley. “We also have information boards about what it means to put a coin on the grave, what the challenge coins mean, and what the 21 steps at Arlington represent. Also what the gold, blue, silver and white stars represent.”

There are a lot of educational pieces for families to come in and learn about, she said. “Every year we add something new.”

 Martinez de Stapley said the uniforms have been donated to them. “The boots for the boot display have been donated to us as well. We’ve had squadrons from the Air Force Base donate items. Army units have given us their boots. So we have quite a few boots.”

There is an area just for kids, she said. “They can come in and write thank you letters to our veterans and we have a video talking about what Memorial Day is.”

It is a free event, said Martinez de Stapley. “We’re able to do that through the graciousness of donors and sponsors and people donating. So all of the money raised goes right back to the families.”

Tracy was not a man who liked attention so his boot is not front and center, she said. “So his boots are right in line with the other boots. This has been very therapeutic for me. We make sure that everyone knows they are very important – just like Tracy was.”

Martinez de Stapley will be a guest speaker at a special Veterans Day event at the Layton Hills Mall on Nov. 7 at 4 p.m.

For more information about the Operation Hero event visit operationheroes.org.