Photo By Chuck Cannon | Chap. (Lt. Col.) Derrick Riggs, Fort Polk garrison chaplain, explains how the Fort...... read more read more
FORT POLK, La. — If you’ve been around the military for any length of time, you know that as Thanksgiving Day approaches, most installations host some type of program through the post chapels to financially assist those who might need a helping hand with preparing a holiday meal.
While Fort Polk is no different from other Army posts, the end result of this year’s Operation Helping Hand almost seems like, well, a holiday miracle.
“The money typically comes from the chaplain tithes and offering fund,” said Lt. Col. Derrick Riggs, Fort Polk garrison chaplain. “While we had some money (in the chaplain tithes and offering fund) that we could use, we didn’t know how many families were going to request help.”
Riggs said he didn’t want the names of those requesting assistance, just numbers.
“I told them, ‘I don’t want names. Let the NCOs handle the names. All we need to know is how many,’” he said.
Riggs said the numbers trickled in and with about two weeks left before the suspense date, the total stood at 217. But over those last two weeks the total nearly doubled, to 404.
“We’re began looking at the amount of money and knew we were going to be short,” Riggs said. “I did not want us to have to turn anyone away.”
When asked by the installation chief of staff if there was an order of merit list to determine who received assistance in the event there were not enough funds to go around, Riggs said he replied: “Sir, I hope and pray that we don’t get to the point where we have to have an order of merit list — that would mean we didn’t have enough money or food.”
At the time Riggs made that statement, $14,000 had been raised — a nice sum, but not enough to feed 404 Families.
Then, what can only be described as a holiday miracle or, as Riggs suggested, Families caring for those less fortunate, happened — over four days the total collected grew to nearly $19,000 and 600 pounds of donated food.
“There were about 100 $50 gift cards donated; we added money from the tithes and offering fund; we had a gentleman walk in and write us a check for $4,000, the Fort Polk Thrift Store gave money, the commissary gave us money. Within the last three days we went from $14,000 to almost $19,000.”
Thanks to the garrison food drive, 30 boxes of food were given to Families.
“I really don’t care how much money was raised or how many pounds of food we collected,” Riggs said. “The thing that I think is the most encouraging is that we were able to get word out that there was a need on this installation, and people gave. The bulk of the money and food came from the Fort Polk community to help the Fort Polk community.” Riggs said that’s important, especially when incoming Soldiers and Families think an assignment here might not be pleasant.
“At Fort Polk, we might not have big city options right outside the gate, but what we do have are people who care for people,” he said. “That’s a big selling point for Fort Polk. You come here and we are a small community, where people know who you are and they want to help. Operation Helping Hand proved it. The Fort Polk community is learning how to be close and how to take care of each other.”
Riggs said during the final weeks of Operation Helping Hand, Soldiers of all ranks walked up to him after staff meetings and slid money into his hand, telling him to add it to the collection.
Riggs said the plan is to establish an Operation Helping Hand permanent account so that donations can be made throughout the year.
“On December 9 all offerings at chapel services will go to Operation Helping Hand,” he said. “Next year I would love to sit down with the commanding general and say, ‘Sir, we can help out 500 Families, and if we don’t have that many Families who need help, we double on what we give to the others.’”
While Operation Helping Hand is run by the chaplain’s office, Riggs said no recognition is needed.
“It’s not that the chaplains did something great,” he said. “In fact I don’t want any chaplain to get any glory and I don’t want this office to get any glory.
“The most compelling thing is the people of Fort Polk came together to help the people of Fort Polk. There were agencies that came together to be the collection point and distribute the collections, but it all came down to officers, NCOs, Soldiers and Family members that gave food and money to other Families.”
| Date Taken: | 11.30.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 11.30.2018 15:28 |
| Story ID: | 301862 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 2,802 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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