Sgt Dara Laura

To Sgt. Dara Laura, everybody needs a little Christmas.

That's why the chaplain's assistant from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 526th Brigade Support Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, set out to spread some seasonal cheer throughout her unit in Iraq last December.

Laura distributed Christmas trees and decorations, helped organize company holiday parties and provided gifts to soldiers.

"Much of what Sgt. Laura does for soldiers is done on her own time, at her own expense and is at times outside her assigned duties," Anthony Laura wrote in an e-mail.

Dara Laura's giving spirit doesn't end with Christmas.

"One thing I have really been working on is ensuring soldiers are receiving mail and care packages while deployed," Laura wrote in a 2008 Service Member of the Year questionnaire. "Sometimes I will gather up items that I receive in my own care packages, divide them up and ship them to outlying [bases] for those infantry units that hardly receive anything."