The annual Christmas Eve Road March honoring veterans and active duty service members stepped off in Glens Falls on Tuesday morning for the 16th year in a row.

"I wouldn't be any other place," said Dana Marcotte of Lake Luzerne.

When Sergeant First Class Art Coon started the annual Christmas Eve march in 2004, he was working as a recruiter for the National Guard.

"Our soldiers from the local armory were deployed to Iraq, and we could easily be home in our pajamas sipping hot cocoa. I didn’t want them to think we had done that — forgotten them," Sgt. Coon said. "So I thought 'what could I do to grab their attention?' I’m like, ‘I’m gonna do a road march!’ "

Marcotte has been coming since that first year.

"My children were deployed over Christmas, so I know what it’s like for families and I know what it’s like for the soldiers, and this is just a small way to honor the fact that they can’t be home with you," Marcotte said.

Marcotte’s two sons were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan over Christmas three times. She says it’s hard for others to imagine what it’s like for military families this time of year.

"It’s horrific, [to] be missing a spouse over a Christmas, missing your children over Christmas, it’s like — and they’re in danger — they’re in harm’s way and you’re worried," Marcotte said. "You get through it because there’s other people you have to get through the holiday for, but it’s sad. There’s something missing."

And Marcotte says coming together helps fill the void. Now her sons are veterans, and come each year as the march has grown.

"Who would think, 16 years and there’s a couple thousand people? There were 12, 12 people [when it started] ... it means a lot," Sgt. Coon said through tears.

And his wife, Julie Coon, agrees.

"I can’t even begin to tell you," Coon said, also through tears.

But this isn’t just a march. There are collections for care packages to send overseas. Hope Rosati-Frettoloso came to the Coons family six years ago and told them she was going to start collecting pennies year round to help with postage.

"But everyone waits until this week to bring them in — jars, bags, you name it," Rosati-Frettoloso said. "And they’re like, ‘It’s not much,’ but I tell them every penny counts. In the last six years, we’ve raised $9,200."

"You know how many pennies that is?" Julie Coon said.

It's 920,000 pennies, to be exact.

"It just means so much that we can pack up and we know the funds are there," Julie Coon said.

Coons and Rosati-Frettoloso said the care packages cost anywhere between $18 and $30 to ship, depending on their weight. This year, Rosati-Frettoloso presented the Coons family with $1,841 she'd collected.