Belvoir USO volunteer awarded President's Volunteer Service Award; Military wife, mom donates time i

By Brittany Carlson, Belvoir EagleNovember 27, 2013

Volunteer
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT BELVOIR, Va. (NOV.27) -- Since Fort Belvoir's USO Warrior and Family Center opened in February, Heide Stanphill has volunteered nearly 500 hours there, greeting servicemembers and their Families, cleaning the building, serving food and helping with special events.

To recognize her service, Stanphill was awarded the President's Volunteer Service Award Nov. 21.

The award was a surprise for Stanphill, a military spouse and mother of two Soldiers, who said she volunteers for a very personal reason: to honor her son Kevin Stanphill, a medically retired disabled veteran who passed away in 2009, and his comrades in arms.

"I volunteer in memory of my son, who was a combat medic, and in memory of all the fallen," Stanphill said. "It's about our servicemembers and their Families. I know the hardship that they can go through. It's about them, not me."

Stanphill's favorite part of volunteering is interacting with servicemembers and their Families, especially the wounded warriors.

"Some of them sometimes just need a listening ear, and they share their stories. Just greeting them by their name … it literally puts a smile on their face," she said.

To Stanphill, the most memorable moments of volunteering happen when wounded warriors stop by to tell her goodbye, before they are sent off to rejoin their units.

"Since my son was a medically retired disabled veteran, to me it's very dear to my heart that the wounded warriors … actually go back to where they want to go; they're not medically discharged," Stanphill said. "It's a healing process, for me to help others that are in need."

In addition to volunteering at the USO Warrior and Family Center, Stanphill also volunteers for the USO of Metropolitan Washington at events throughout the National Capital Region. She has become an integral part of operations, according to Pauline Ray, hospital services and entertainment manager for the USO-Metro.

"Heide Stanphill is one our most valued volunteers," Ray said. "If she is not at the USO Warrior and Family Center, you can probably find her at movies on the lawn, helping out with Turkeys for Troops (or the) USO's Project Elf, depending on the time of year. She is always willing to lend a hand."

Stanphill, who immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1980, has been volunteering with troops since the late 1970s, when she worked as a German liaison for an American military unit in Germany. She married an American Soldier in 1979 and volunteered for her husband's unit for the rest of his military career, as well as for the Red Cross.

However, her connection to the American military dates back a bit further.

"It goes all the way back to World War II when an American Soldier saved my mom's life. I have felt always grateful towards the American military -- without them I wouldn't have been born," Stanphill said.

On Christmas Eve in 1944, Stanphill's mother was roaming the streets of Ludwigsburg looking for food and shelter with her 3-year-old son, after losing her husband and the rest of her family to the war.

"The Moroccans came in and they plundered my mom's home and out of fear, she fled," Stanphill said. "She knocked on a villa's door and American officers opened the door. They invited my mom in and they fed her and my brother, and they gave her a job as a housekeeper. That's how they basically saved her life, because she was afraid to go back to her home."

Now, Stanphill couldn't imagine life without volunteering for the troops.

"I enjoy every minute of being here at the USO," she said. "I look forward to every shift and I look forward to every event."

For more information on the PVSA, visit www.presidentialserviceawards.gov.