HEIDELBERG, Germany - The USAREUR and IMCOM-E Combined Federal Campaign awards ceremony Feb. 10 at the Village Pavilion on Patrick Henry Village recognized the hundreds of Soldiers and civilians whose participation in the fall campaign raised $2.4 million.
Speaking on behalf of USAREUR Commander Gen. Carter Ham, Brig. Gen. Mark Bellini, USAREUR deputy chief of staff, G4 Logistics, thanked the U.S. Army Europe team for banding together, offering so much to make other people's lives better.
"When you think about what families are going through today with the stresses on individual pocketbooks and family budgets, for everyone to come together as a group and do what you did is simply amazing. It speaks volumes about you as leaders who went out to your units and made sure individual members who wanted to contribute could. In spite of deployments, redeployments, unit transitions, moves, transformation, stresses on individual and family budgets, once again the USAREUR family came together and expressed and demonstrated teamwork and generosity," he said.
Approximately 250 bronze, silver, gold, platinum and special merit awards were presented to IMCOM-E and USAREUR units. The 52nd Signal Battalion based in Stuttgart and the U.S. Army Garrison Hohenfels each earned the CFC special merit award. This award is given to a unit from each component for its remarkable generosity, exceptional participation, and extraordinary volunteer spirit compared to its previous year's campaign.
U.S. Army Garrison Hohenfels Command Sgt. Maj. Brenda Kadet said she was proud of the way the community supported CFC. "Everyone reached down deep to contribute. Hohenfels is a small community but always comes through in a big way when needed for worthwhile events like CFC, AER (Army Emergency Relief), and others," she said.
Spc. Sarah Palmer, from B Company, 2nd Military Intelligence Battalion based in Wiesbaden, accepted her unit's platinum award, and said that although this was her first time being a CFC coordinator, her unit made the effort easy. "It is such a good feeling to know we stepped up to the plate. We are a smaller unit so I think our participation was outstanding."
Palmer also said while times are tough for everyone, she was especially proud of how much participation the unit had from its junior enlisted members.
CFC-Overseas Deputy Director Constance Baker said that USAREUR and IMCOM-E have traditionally done very well over the years, having developed a clear partnership to work together with a common goal for CFC. "We like to call it giving through teamwork. I think our participants know that the need is out there so they continuously give, and the end result feels really good," she said. "$2.4 million is not too shabby."
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