LS2 SCW Angelina Colon-Franceschi

Married, mother of two boys with a daughter on the way.

Logistics Specialist 2nd Class (SCW) Angelina Colon-Franceschi had a big year in 2011. She returned aboard the destroyer Mahan after a support role in Operation Unified Protector, the NATO support mission in Libya. She also earned a promotion to petty officer second class.

But it’s her off-duty efforts that have really made a difference. With help from her husband, Giovanni, she wrote, illustrated and published a children’s book titled “Mommy the Sailor,” which tells the story of a female sailor’s deployment through the voice of her children.

In 2011, she donated 100 copies of her book to child development centers in the Hampton Roads, Va., area. All sales from her book are being donated to nonprofit organizations, such as the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters. Her commanding officer, Cmdr. Mark Nicholson, described Colon-Francheschi as a “good sailor who is involved in her community.” .

In other charity efforts, she raised nearly $1,100 |worth of new and used toys for homeless children, and |collected food for a food bank and clothes for the Salvation Army.