Hohenfels donations nearly double CFC goal

By Kristin Bradley, USAG Hohenfels Public AffairsJanuary 27, 2009

HOHENFELS, Germany - Though many American families are feeling the pinch of the global economic slump, the Combined Federal Campaign Overseas saw an increase in donations this year from the U.S. Army Garrison Hohenfels community - more than $50,000 worth.

CFC-O allows employees to voluntarily contribute to a charity of their choice by choosing from the hundreds of organizations affiliated with the CFC. During the 2008 campaign, which ran for eight weeks between October and December, Hohenfels employees gave more than $155,000 in donations, $65,000 beyond this year's goal of $90,000.

Catrina Marsh, this year's CFC-O community-area project officer for U.S. Army Garrison Hohenfels, said the total raised last year was about $102,000.

"We had a few more Soldiers this year to count, but that doesn't account for the extra 50,000 some odd dollars. People were very generous this year," she said.

Marsh said at the beginning of the campaign she set a personal goal of raising at least $120,000. "I was really excited when we met that, and everything on top of it has just been icing on the cake."

Hohenfels met its goal in only the fourth week of the eight-week campaign thanks in part to units that had more than 90 percent of their personnel participate, including Co. A, 1st Military Intelligence Battalion, 2 Air Support Operations Squadron, the Blacksheep, Vampire, and Raptor teams, USAG Hohenfels Department of Public Works, C and D Companies, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, and Instrumentation Training Analysis Computer Simulations and Support.

Sixty-one percent of employees at Hohenfels donated to one or more of their favorite charities supporting everything from the environment and medical research to education and youth outreach programs. Those donations worked out to an average gift of roughly $160.

According to Marsh, each unit had an employee who, like her, voluntarily advertised and coordinated the campaign within their unit. Those unit coordinators were a big part of this year's success, she said.

Though it meant lots of extra work for her, she said assisting Hohenfels philanthropic efforts was extremely rewarding. "It was fun for me to watch the numbers climb, getting higher and higher every week."