Photo By Chuck Cannon | Couples dance the evening away during a date night hosted by Army Community...... read more read more
FORT POLK, La. — More than 25 couples gathered in the Fort Polk Army Community Service ballroom to renew their marriage vows on Feb. 14 — Valentines Day.
The date night event, hosted by ACS’ Family Advocacy Program, included dining, games, dancing, door prizes and free childcare, in addition to the vow renewal.
Kristina England, FAP manager, said date nights are held quarterly.
“We wanted to do a vow renewal around Valentines Day,” she said. “We have such a high-tempo at Fort Polk, so we wanted to give Soldiers and their spouses some time to themselves to recommit and renew.”
England said date night events allow Soldiers and their spouses to take a break from daily life and tell each other how much they are loved and appreciated. “They have a night out without the cost — it’s free, including childcare,” she said. “It allows them to focus on each other. We reemphasize the importance of dating your spouse.”
Fort Polk Garrison Commander Col. Ryan K. Roseberry said date night events are great for Soldiers and their Families because they’re free.
“This is something we can do for our Families that is very low cost,” Roseberry said. “These are quality of life events we should be doing for our Soldiers and their Families. This is what the garrison does to take care of Families.”
Chap. (Capt.) Travis Dalsis, 46th Engineer Battalion, led the vow renewal portion of the evening. He began with a lemon, salt and honey object lesson that used the spices as examples of what couple share. Afterward, he had the couples form a horseshoe, face each other and renew their vows.
Before playing games and hitting the dance floor, couples enjoyed a meal that consisted of breakfast food.
“Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day,” Dalsis said. “This signifies that your spouse is the most important person in your life.”
For Josh and Melissa Galaise, it was the second year in a row to take advantage of the Valentines Day date night at ACS and renew their vows.
“We’ve been married almost seven years and had a good time at last year’s event,” Josh said. “I love it because we have five kids and they are not our problem tonight.”
Melissa said the highlight of the evening was getting to say “I love you,” all over again.
“I love it,” she said.
Not all of the daters were veteran couples. Jonathan and Caroline Casmus were just married Dec. 27. They said they had so much fun getting married they decided to do it again.
“We’re pretty crazy about each other,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 02.21.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 02.21.2020 14:14 |
| Story ID: | 363632 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 80 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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