Laptop Contest Winner from New York!

Laptop Contest Winner
11/10/11

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The winner of the Soldiers’ Angels laptop essay competition, Denise Ruiz, is a medically-retired veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan now living in New York state who is working hard to build a second career. The laptop she receives will benefit a total of four people—Ruiz and her three* children.

Ruiz is enrolled in college as a fulltime student, but is without any kind of computer of her own. She has been relying on computer labs at school and the library near her home to complete classwork, but will now be able to save time by using her new laptop at home. Thanks to her winning essay, Ruiz’s children—16, 13 and 6 years old—now will have easy access to a computer for their own schoolwork.

Joining the Army three days before 9-11, Ruiz served in Iraq (2003-2004) and Afghanistan (2006), driving 18-wheelers full of fuel for military vehicles. She retired in 2008 after fighting a recurring injury and has been focusing on building a new career in criminal justice for herself and her children.

Last week after noticing the announcement on Facebook that Soldiers’ Angels was giving away a laptop to a veteran, Ruiz mentioned the contest to her English teacher who urged her to nominate herself. “I’m not gonna win,” Ruiz insisted, but her teacher continued to push. “Just try it,” he said. “It never hurts to try!” He encouraged her to view it as a class assignment.

When Ruiz first discovered she was the winner of a new laptop, she was incredulous. She saw the initial notification pop up on her cell phone during one of her classes, but didn’t believe it until she had time to reread the email several times after class concluded. “It never hurts to try something for the first time,” she now says, “because you never know…”

Though Ruiz didn’t receive Soldiers’ Angels support during her own deployments, she has long been aware of the organization and appreciates what Angels do. She maintains contact with an email group based out of Ft. Drum in order to stay informed about ways her friends still in the military can receive assistance and has seen Soldiers’ Angels mentioned many times as a resource. She has even signed up her deployed friends for Angel adoption in order to ensure their morale stays up. “When you’re deployed, a care package is everything,” she exclaims.

Ruiz herself no longer has to deal with deployment like her friends do, but she is now experiencing for herself the Soldiers’ Angels motto: “May No Soldier Go Unloved.”

Congratulations to SGT (ret) Ruiz!