Commander's Corner Garrison Commander Fort McPherson & Fort Gillem Yesterday we celebrated and honored some very special people at Fort McPherson and Fort Gillem.
Their efforts go largely unnoticed by the masses, but these 585 people make this year's National Volunteer Week theme, "Volunteers make a world of difference," come to life and take on real meaning.
At just $10 a hour, our volunteers' 29,739 hours of labor would have cost the Army nearly $300,000. But volunteers' time cannot be measured with a dollar value, nor can what they contribute be counted as merely savings to the bottom line of a budget.
They do so much more. During the annual Spring Fest of 2008, volunteers helped with face painting, craft activities and hiding 10,000 candy eggs for hundreds of children to find.
At this year's Spring Fest, volunteers contributed to the event's success by manning game stations and arts and craft activities.
You can see the happy faces of the children from that event by checking out last week's Sentinel, looking at the Sentinel Web page on www.mcpherson.army.mil or by visiting the new "Fort McPherson and Gillem" Facebook group.
You can't buy the smiles of those children with money - those smiles are bought with love and time put in by volunteers like you.
Family Readiness Groups led by volunteer leaders are held monthly with instruction and other volunteer activities, such as family picnics and festivals. Army Community Service volunteers helped with "Make a Difference Day," employment readiness job fairs, relocation readiness programs, the Army Volunteer Corps Program and the Information and Referral Office.
We couldn't maintain these these activities without volunteers. Volunteers from our three chapels visited veterans in the VA nursing home, conducted a mission trip, held two vacation Bible school programs, conducted weekly religious education classes, led fellowship events and retreats and orchestrated the Chapel Ministry in the Park.
The 315 chapel volunteers logged more than 21,000 hours. These same volunteers served 230 meals to Soldiers at the Barracks and Single Soldiers dinners hosted by chapel members. Those outside the Army family benefited from our volunteers' benevolence, as well.
Local schools were blessed with Community Outreach Program volunteers who mentored and tutored; conducted read-a-thons, science fairs and career day activities; taught leadership and life skills in classroom activities and chess after school and oversaw job shadowing and junior achievement programs.
The entire installation came together to make this happen. I thank Soldiers and DA Civilian employees from U.S. Army Forces Command, First Army, U.S. Army Central, the U.S. Army Reserve Command, the garrison and more for their volunteer efforts throughout the year.
Our tax center volunteers prepared 1,963 federal tax returns. They also prepared 1,759 state returns for military Families.
These wonderful, skilled volunteers contributed more than 1,300 hours to assist Tax Center customers from January until April 15.
There were nights last week, the last week to file returns, when lights were burning in those offices well past 9 p.m.
I talked to one DA Civilian employee who said he paid nearly $500 to have a somewhat-complicated tax return completed off post. For military Families, just as meaningful as the cost savings is the peace of mind in knowing everything was in order thanks to these volunteers.
Without volunteers, we could not have conducted events like the Army birthday celebration, the Hooah Race, Nostalgia Game Show Night, the Gillem Gallop, Youth Fishing Rodeos and holiday tree-lighting ceremonies.
Volunteers capped the year off in November and December with 385 holiday vouchers, totaling $19,750, that were issued by the ACS Volunteer Association to Soldiers and their Families to help them provide their Family with a quality, festive holiday season. Volunteers did all of this during the most depressed economic time witnessed by our generation, making their contributions that much more valuable in our hearts.
Volunteers, your efforts help keep us Army Strong! Thanks for all you do each and every day, each and every year.
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