Harcourts is flying Rachel home

Harcourts is flying Rachel home

Press Release: Harcourts

3 July 2013

Life as a military spouse can be lonely and fraught with uncertainty, so family becomes more important than ever.

But for Kiwi Rachel Preen, who is married to an American marine, family is a long way away.

It is Harcourts’ pleasure to be flying Rachel home as the winner of our Fly a Friend Home for their Birthday competition.

Rachel was nominated by family member Holly Kavermann, who shared an emotional plea for Rachel’s return. Her story received the most votes on our Facebook page.

It will be the first time in three years Rachel has been home. She will fly in from Texas, where her husband Joe is currently stationed. Joe and her three year old daughter Scarlett will accompany her.

At the end of this year, there is a good possibility Joe will be deployed to Afghanistan. He has already had two deployments in Iraq, and each time Rachel is left in the United States away from her family.

Holly says it is incredibly difficult for Rachel, particularly as she has a small daughter.

“Rachel has no other family in America and is always terribly homesick. She’s a devoted mother and wife. She does voluntary work to help other military spouses in Texas. She’s amazing.”

After learning of her win, Rachel wrote the following note of thanks to Harcourts:

“I am so excited! Thanks to Harcourts for this amazing opportunity. I feel so very blessed. I had a great network of fellow military spouses, friends, family and anyone else who would listen pushing this for me. They all understand how much this means for not only me, but my husband and my daughter.”

Harcourts CEO Hayden Duncan came up with the idea to fly someone home in recognition of Harcourts’ 125th birthday.

“It’s important to be around family and friends on your birthday and we thought this was a fitting addition to our celebrations this year. Rachel’s story touched a lot of hearts and we are delighted to be able to fly her home to her family.”

ENDS

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