REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- One of the command's very own will be honored with the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award at this year's Spirit of America Festival.
Her name is Laura Ayers, general engineer and liaison officer at headquarters Army Materiel Command.
Ayers has been volunteering for 28 years and it began with a desire to help disabled children.
"I joined my first non profit board as a sophomore in college," said Ayers.
The program adapted technology for disabled children in fourth through eighth grade with physical disabilities, exposed them to careers, and let them spend a day in a company doing that career, explained Ayers.
"It was always so rewarding to see these young individuals get self-confidence and realize they could have a viable career with their disability," she said.
Her volunteering focus shifted to Soldiers after a visit to the Vietnam Memorial wall that changed her life.
"It was just such a moving experience for me that within a month I switched jobs. I switched all my volunteer focusing on Soldiers, Veterans and their families and started working at Fort Campbell and helping the Solders and their families up there," Ayers continued.
"As Soldiers deployed and redeployed, many returned home with mental and physical differences," she said. "The same skills I learned with the youth were very applicable. I started using those skills to help the Soldiers, their families, their children," Ayers said.
After helping roughly 150 families, Ayers began collecting her notes and materials and put it towards the writing of a workbook she authored called The Reintegration Action Plan with the help of five friends and vetting through legal offices and mental health professionals.
The Governor of Alabama, Bob Riley, publicly released the workbook along with a letter of endorsement and the Associated Press furthered its reach.
Soon after non- profits, Soldiers and families across the nation began using the RAP free of charge.
Veterans Affairs has picked up the book and has gone to print about four times in the past year and a half, said Ayers.
Ayers' next major venture supporting Soldiers came when she along with six others founded an organization called 'Still Serving Veterans,' after five years she rolled off that board to focus her attention to a school for disabled children.
Currently, Ayers sits on the following non-profit boards: the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Redstone- Huntsville Chapter; North Alabama Veterans and Fraternal Organizations Coalition; Alabama Returning Veterans; North Alabama Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) -- North Alabama Chapter; State of Alabama Returning Service Members; Veterans and Their Families Policy Academy; the Department of Health & Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) panel; and Greengate School board member.
"I stay connected and we [Ayers and her husband] help where we can," she said. "My husband and I refuse all acknowledgement and we do everything anonymously."
That was until a friend, Dave Carney, encouraged her not to pull her name out of the award nominees for what she thought was the Sprit of America Humanitarian award.
Carney knew she would not have gone for it if she knew the truth; that she was being nominated for the Audie Murphy Patriotism award, which Sprit of America announced she won, May 16.
"This will be the first time in the 45 years of Spirit of America history this award has been presented to a woman," Carney said.
In addition to Ayers vast volunteering efforts, the spirit that she serves in is what sticks out.
"She is a humble person. She wants to help from the background," said Command Sergeant Major (ret.) John Perry. "Whenever I had a Soldier with a problem, I always called Laura."
In some cases, she would point me to a local church that could assist or she and her husband would answer that call themselves, Perry continued.
Together, Ayers and her husband strive to do just that: answer the call.
"We are just continuously doing, giving and helping. It's not going to end or stop," Ayers said. "When we come out of Afghanistan we're going to have Soldiers that have deployed six times that's easy to see and the toll on families…"
The award will be formally presented during the Sprit of America festival in July.
According to Spirit of America, the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award is named in honor of America's most decorated soldier and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Audie Murphy. Murphy, who was to have been the guest speaker at the 1971 Spirit of America, died in a plane crash just two months prior to his scheduled appearance at the event. The award was then designated as the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award and is presented annually to an outstanding American patriot or an outstanding group of individuals who best exemplify the true Spirit of America.
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