SEATTLE RECRUITING BATTALION, Wash. -- After a mudslide buried most of the town of Oso, Wash. March 22, there has been an outpouring of support in the form of volunteers, donations, thoughts and prayers throughout the state and nation.

One of the volunteers is typical. Melissa Daniels was born and raised in the area and the slide directly affected her. She lives in Arlington; a town located near Oso. I live about five miles away from the slide, said Daniels. "I knew a lot of people that died in it or are missing."

But Daniels is also an untypical volunteer because she is about to leave for Army basic combat training April 28 to become a Soldier.

A Soldier helping during a natural disaster isn't surprising. And sometimes, as in the case of National Guardsmen, helping is part of the job. Additionally, Soldiers are expected to live by the seven Army values: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honesty, integrity and personal courage, but Daniels isn't even a Soldier yet.

"I believe it will help me in the Army," Daniels said. I was already put in charge of a team and had to look out for the team's safety while we were using chain saws to help clear out logs in the way of the recovery effort, she said.

A fellow volunteer who met Daniels for the first time during the recovery effort agreed. "She's probably already embodied the military values," the volunteer, who did not wish to be named, said. "She'll be great in the military and I'd trust her to protect this country."

Daniels, a 'future Soldier' who enlisted in the Army at the Marysville Army Career Center, signed up to become an allied trade specialist.

"I think she's exemplified all the Army values at one point or another," said Sgt. Kenneth Dugger, a recruiter at the Marysville center. She's shown personal courage and loyalty by helping out with the mudslide and demonstrated Army values by helping other 'future Soldiers' with their online training, he said.

So far, Daniels has volunteered numerous days at the mudslide site and at a donation supply distribution center when she isn't working at her regular job. She is planning to help out as much as possible before she leaves for basic training and doesn't care what she's doing as long as it's helping, Daniels said.

It's been 20 days since a mudslide killed at least 36 people in Oso, a rural area northeast of the Seattle Recruiting Battalion's headquarters. The battalion's company in Everett has stations and centers that recruit for the Active Army and Army Reserve in Snohomish County, where Oso resides.