‘Thankful for their service.’ Pines Hooters girls ship calendars, packages to troops
If you pass by Hooters of Pembroke Pines, you’ll usually find Selena Sanchez — the franchise calendar’s cover girl — slinging wings and beer to customers year-round with the smile that landed her the front page.
Drop by Christmas week and you’ll find her joined by a team of Hooters staff who’ve swapped baskets of finger food for care packages for U.S. military troops, assembled with the same winning grin.
“Being involved in the community and giving back is probably one of the best jobs I could ever have,” she told the Pembroke Pines News during a private box-packing event in the restaurant’s backroom Dec. 23.
This holiday season, Sanchez — along with Hooters girls Gracie Williams (July), Cristie Santiesteban (April) and Paulina Patruno (inside back cover) — will sign over 1,000 calendars as part of the franchise’s annual Operation Calendar Drop.
The morale-boosting drive — which got its start in the early 2000s — is part of a nationwide Hooters effort that sees thousands of signed calendars with personalized thank you notes shipped out to active duty service members and local veterans organizations, according to spokesperson Ilona Wolpin.
To add to this year’s Christmas cheer, Hooters’ Pembroke Pines location is adding a new tradition: care packages for troops overseas.
Nearly a dozen Hooters girls and local armed forces recruiters gathered at the Dec. 23 event to assemble 40 boxes with donations from Hooters of South Florida for soldiers stationed abroad during the holiday season.
Inside are personal hygiene items such as deodorant and toothbrushes, quintessential American snacks such as Pop-Tarts and Oreos, and branded T-shirts. Signed 2026 Hooters calendars — which customers can donate to soldiers by purchasing the $16 spread — are also included.
“In past years, we actually got to send Hooters girls to drop off the calendar ... but we can’t go over there [anymore],” said Williams, who works at the Fort Lauderdale Beach Place store restaurant. “When the calendars go out, we’ve gotten pictures back from people, like, in Iraq saying ‘Thank you so much.’ ... So I know these gift packages are going to go so much farther than just the calendar.”
For Williams and Santiesteban, who works at the Pines restaurant, supporting the armed forces hits close to home.
The former has several family members who have served in the military while the latter’s boss, Joseph Truglio, is an Army veteran she says hammers the importance of giving back to local veterans into his employees.
Truglio’s first job after retiring from the military in 1998 as a tank operator was at Hooters of Pembroke Pines, where he’s since become the restaurant’s managing partner.
To honor his roots, he’s made it a point to go beyond participating in Operation Calendar Drop and has his staff visit residents at Alexander Nininger State Veterans’ Nursing Home, just over a mile away from the restaurant.
“Obviously, I take it personal. ... I take it upon myself and the girls here to make sure we get over there and make sure that we feed them, we interact with them,” Truglio said. “A lot of them do not have families, so this time of year, they’re by themselves.”
To participate in Operation Calendar Drop, customers are encouraged to purchase a calendar in a restaurant, mention they’d like it donated to troops and include a personalized note that Hooters girl Paulina Patruno says makes the perfect “Christmas gift” for those serving our country.
“We want them to know that we think about them, even if we’re not there in person,” Patruno, who works at the Weston location, added. “We want them to know that we care for them and we’re really thankful for their service.”
