FORT JACKSON, S.C. -- Volunteer: Staff Sgt. Nicole Steinbring
Activities: Volunteers with Shriners Hospitals for Children, breast cancer awareness activities and holiday events in the city of Cayce.
Fort Jackson's Active Duty Military 2012 Volunteer of the Year, Steinbring has an active volunteer life both on and off post. As an athlete, she's competed for several years in breast cancer awareness competitive runs, an issue that hits close to home for her.
"Breast cancer runs in our family, so it's an important topic for us," said Steinbring, who is a drill sergeant with Company E, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment. Last Christmas, she also cooked and delivered meals to fire stations and emergency services sites in Cayce, where her father is employed as a police officer.
"We made Christmas dinner for the officers that were working that night, and all during the day," she said.
Steinbring is especially proud of her work with Shriners Hospitals for Children, an organization dedicated to treating children with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate, regardless of their family's ability to pay.
"The Shriners Hospital is there for anyone who needs help," she said. "Not everyone can afford surgery."
She's helped to stage benefit plays to raise money for Shriners, and has also volunteered for activities that let her interact directly with the hospital's young patients.
"You see the children and they are just so happy," she said. "They don't understand what being selfish means. They're just so giving. Something as simple as finding Easter eggs helps them to forget what's going on in their lives."
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