Fort Lee family finds niche in volunteer work

By Amy PerryJuly 30, 2015

A family affair
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT LEE, Va. (July 30, 2015) -- The Loden family has been volunteering at Army Community Service events for more than 14 years.

Their dedication to the program these days has a lot to do with mom, Susan's work as the ACS Volunteer Corps coordinator. Tom, dad, is the emergency manager, Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security and a retired Army master sergeant. Only daughter, Katherine recently graduated high school and is set to attend Longwood University in Farmville this fall.

The Lodens got involved with ACS after Susan started looking for a job upon receiving her master's degree. Since the degree is in counseling, and typically requires a state license or certification, she decided to look for work in the federal system because of the military-related moves. She was hired in Wuerzburg, Germany, in employment readiness.

"Employment and volunteering are very similar in that I try to figure out what I can do for the client to get them where they want to go," said Susan. "Whether its employment, job skills, or networking into a community or career field, both of those career fields will get them to what they want. It involves counseling because I have to work with the client to figure out their best fit.

"When they come in and say they want to volunteer, if they say 'I don't care' -- that just doesn't work because they could hate it, volunteer one time and quit," Susan continued. "It's talking to the person, finding out what they want to do and what skills they have, and then trying to find them something they will want to do."

While Tom volunteered at ACS prior to the family's move to Fort Lee, the help requests picked up quickly once here.

"When we got to Fort Lee, I was getting ready to retire," said Tom. "Since I didn't have a lot to do, I got involved in a lot of last minute opportunities -- whether it was helping to set up an event or using my truck to move stuff around."

"He's easy to call last minute," joked Susan. "He's been in ACS videos. You don't want to use actual Soldiers who are in trouble or having financial difficulties, so when we need to film the back of an ACS client getting counseled -- it's usually the back of his head."

Katherine's first volunteer event for ACS at Fort Lee was Run for the Fallen several years ago. Since then, she's volunteered at ACS birthday events and helped pass out welcome home packages to Soldiers returning from block leave during the holidays. Her first taste of helping out at ACS happened when she was merely 5 years old.

"Katherine got her first introduction to ACS in Germany because of 9/11," said Susan. "All the day cares were closed and ACS went to 24-hour operations. So Katherine was at ACS for 24 hours, for several days. She got roped into whatever we were doing like handing out coffee to the military police as they went by on their routes or handing out breakfast."

Run for the Fallen really stands out to the Loden family and they've volunteered every year it's been here. The family has volunteered at everywhere from the ACS giveaway table to the sound system to offloading bananas and water for the participants.

"We're so lucky for those military members who have come back, yet there are some families who haven't been so lucky," said Katherine. "I think it's important to show support for those families."

The volunteering doesn't start and stop at ACS, though, for the Loden family. Katherine volunteers with the Venture Crew, a co-ed program through Boy Scouts of America, and Susan often volunteers for Habitat for Humanity. The entire family volunteers at church and scouting.

"Our first introduction to volunteering was Boy Scouts -- before Katherine was even born," said Tom.

Outside of Germany, Katherine's earliest volunteer efforts were at church, and that volunteering spirit is something her parents have engrained in her.

"I will continue to volunteer, because it's how I was taught," she said.

One project that stands out to the Lodens was the KABOOM! playground build in Monroe Manner in 2012.The organization solicited ideas from Fort Lee youth on the type of playground they would like to see. On the build day, volunteers come out to help put it together. At Fort Lee, they came out in full force with more than 500 volunteers showing up, which doubles a typical playground built. All three Lodens helped out as well.

"Having lived in government housing and knowing about the limited places for children to play, it was great to be part of that build because you could see how excited the kids were," said Tom. "That was really cool."

"Katherine and I painted squares that circled the playground," said Susan. "She had the best time, just knowing that some other military kid was going to play there."

Even when Katherine goes off to college, the Lodens will still volunteer. While she may take a short break to get used to college life, she's already considering joining a service sorority -- focusing on community service projects, rather than social projects -- and enrolling in the Reserve Officer Training Corps program.

The connection to ACS and the family's volunteer efforts will continue, and Tom said he recommends anyone interested in giving back to the military community get involved with volunteering with the organization.

"If you look at what ACS does for the Soldiers and the community -- family members and civilians -- it's the most actively involved agency dealing with people one-on-one. If you're going to volunteer, you should do so with ACS because you can help them with all the different programs they do."