FORT SILL, Okla., June 17, 2016 -- 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Family Readiness Group volunteers provided some much needed landscaping to the United Way of Southwest Oklahoma, June 8 in Lawton.

While many of the families' Soldiers are deployed to the Middle East, their spouses and children worked on a beautification project at the entrance of the facility in Lawton. Shrubs and flowers were planted in front of the entrance along with a red, white and blue Little Free Library that was made from scratch by the volunteers. The library was filled with books to support the United Way's in-house education program, Success by Six.

"There are priorities when working in nonprofit, and landscaping is almost never a high priority," said Sarah Head, United Way community collaborations director. "It's wonderful that there are groups like the FRG that donate material and labor to organizations like ours."

They really put a lot of work into building the free little library. It was built in one of their garages with material donated by themselves and friends of theirs, Head added.

The collaborative project started within a couple weeks after the United Way's annual David Hegwood Day of Caring luncheon. Head attended the luncheon hosted by Fort Sill's Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation to discuss the topic of military and civilian organizations working together to benefit the community.

Bree Dalton, FRG leader, was told that some landscaping work was needed in front of the United Way headquarters. Dalton took the idea and ran with it, pulling resources and generating a plan for the little library.

"These are exactly the kind of spouses we're proud of, Army spouses who get out there, do things for other people, do things for the community, who took this on themselves just to make a positive change," Dalton said.

The spouses made great use of the limited supplies for the project and their children painted decorative stepping stones to lead up to the library. It all came together as they collectively dug holes for the plants, laid batting and ground cover, then finished the assembly of the library by mounting it onto a post. The kids lined up with books in hand to stock it. The library will be open to the public 24 hours a day and donations are welcomed.

"It gives us something to do while dad's gone," said Dalton, "and showing that even though we're in a tough situation, we can always look out for other people and try to always make the best of it."