KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany - Spc. Alexandra Shea-Meyers wanted to get a little something for everyone in her unit and in doing so she now holds the record for gathering groceries: $3,502.21 worth in 90 seconds.
Her record-holding standing comes from the supermarket sweep event at the Better Opportunities for Single Servicemembers and Commissary Appreciation Day held May 9 at the Vogelweh Commissary.
"I tried to keep in mind everyone in the unit, so I made sure I got food, razors for our guys and beauty products for our girls," said Shea, from Company C, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
For the third year, the garrison's BOSS program and the Vogelweh Commissary have sponsored this appreciation day here.
"We do it for Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines," said Connie Tallon, the Vogelweh Commissary store manager. "These guys could be gone tomorrow (downrange) or they could have just gotten back yesterday - it's all for them."
Approximately 100 Soldiers and Airmen from five units here participated in calisthenics and seven events.
Its physical training with a twist and "lot's of food," said the garrison Command Sgt. Maj. Pamela Carmouche, who has helped organize this event since the start. She cites the sit-up event as a good example.
Participants like Spec. Alexis Tejedor, from the 29th Support Group, had to knock out 50 sit-ups between eating cookies, bananas and pickles, and drinking juice and milk.
Ending the day's event was the supermarket sweep - or what is now being referred to as the LRMC runaway - where each unit that participated got to keep their shopping wares for their unit.
"We are going to have a squadron barbeque to keep morale up and squadron unity," said Airman 1st Class Steven Spaeder, from the Air Force's 569th U.S. Security Forces Police Squadron, who racked up $1,196.15 of mostly seafood in the supermarket sweep. Although more than $2,000 less than LRMC, Spaeder's efforts were enough to give his unit second-place honors in the supermarket sweep event.
The overall unit award went to the garrison for the second year in row. The joke going around was that the garrison does these events like the dog-food pushups and raw-egg race as a part of their normal PT.
Second-place honors went to U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine-Europe, and also for the second year in a row, the 569th USFPS took third place.
One commissary vendor picks up the tab for this event. This year it was Webco, a broker that represents manufacturers at the commissary. The cost was approximately $7,000 for the shopping spree alone - not including the free breakfast provided to the participants, said Tallon.
Founded in 1989, BOSS is a three-pillared organization that helps single and unaccompanied Soldiers with recreation and leisure, community service and well-being issues. BOSS is an MWR program that benefits from Army Family Covenant funding. BOSS stands for Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers, but because of the unique Kaiserslautern military community multi-service demographics, the name was changed locally to Servicemembers to encourage members from all military branches to take advantage of the program.
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