ABILENE, Kan. -- Fort Riley chaplains participated in an inaugural Care to the Caregiver event on March 3 at the Eisenhower Presidential Library, marking a move to proactively support an important group of professionals who support leaders, Soldiers and their families.
Chap. (Lt. Col.) Lou DelTufo, 1st Infantry Division chaplain, said the event supported the Army?'s Ready and Resilient campaign and was focused specifically on chaplains and their families.
"We hope to encourage our chaplains to build relationships with other chaplains, increase their knowledge of self-care and discuss best practices for caring for members of the command and units," DelTufo said.
Master Resiliency Trainers from Fort Riley's Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness Training Center kicked off the event by presenting portions of the CSF2 Executive Course and modeled the skill of ?"Active and Constructive Responding."
"Not only did I learn more about the local CSF2 resource that is available, but I (also) learned how I could partner regularly with the program to augment training and improve things we are already doing," Chap. (Lt. Col.) Isaiah Gillette, deputy garrison chaplain, said.
Chap. (Lt. Col.) Darryl Hollowell, deputy director for the U.S. Army Center for Spiritual Leadership, presented a visual picture of the work of a chaplain. As he poured out water from a pitcher into a glass, he asked, "How does the pitcher become refilled?"
Caregivers so often take care of themselves last. Without active engagement in behaviors to refill their own pitchers and practice their own resiliency, they will eventually run out of things to give, according to information from the event.
Chap. (Capt.) Timothy Kim, newly commissioned as a chaplain and new to Fort Riley, said "This event helped me see myself like I was any other Soldier. Caregivers are not super-human and need to exercise in their own lives the very same principles that they present to others for healthy living."
Chaplains play a vital role in the system that supports resiliency and the training represents a model of training that will be extended to various caregivers and leaders across the "Big Red One" and Fort Riley, according to information from the event.
"Ultimately with this event, we want to represent that our senior leaders and chaplain corps appreciates and cares about our chaplain caregivers and their families and foster techniques that can help at both the individual and unit level," DelTufo said.
Social Sharing