Photo By Stefanie Antosh | Families from across Joint Base San Antonio attend the 7th annual All is Calm, All is...... read more read more
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Joint Base San Antonio Exceptional Family Member Program Family Support offices and Hearts Apart hosted their 7th annual All is Calm, All is Bright holiday event for families with special needs and families with deployed spouses to gather for holiday crafts, games, and to celebrate the winter holidays together at Arnold Hall Community Center, JBSA-Lackland, Texas Dec. 2, 2022.
Adrienne Beard, EFMP Family Coordinator with Military and Family Readiness, said this event provides an opportunity for JBSA EFMP to show support to families who have special needs during the holidays.
“EFMP Family Support covers everything–educational, psychological, or medical [support]–we want to make sure we say ‘thank you’ to our military families,” Beard said. The event is designed to create what she called a “fun-filled, festive night for the kiddos and the adults.”
Beard, who retired from the Air Force as a major, brings her personal experience to the EFMP Family Support program to make events like this enjoyable.
“I had two premature babies who [had special needs], so I feel my career has come full circle. It allows me to do something I really, really love for families that I’m closely in touch with,” she said.
EFMP Family Support works throughout the year to plan and prepare for this event that is open to all current EFMP families from all military branches and components as well as DoD civilian employees. Preparations for this event include outreach efforts to community partners and local non-profit community support organizations for donations of refreshments, craft supplies and giveaway prizes to keep the event free to attendees.
Dina Castro, an EFMP Family Coordinator at the JBSA-Randolph Military and Family Readiness Center said, “We have Santa’s workshop where the kids can go pick a bunch of toys, they will have a chance to win cupcakes, they can decorate cookies, make reindeer horns, and the [Band of the West] is here so there’s festive music. We also have a lot of giveaways, so the teenagers can win gift cards.”
The event was also open to families with spouses who are deployed. Castro mentioned that the activities provide an environment for the families to meet, connect and develop an informal support group.
“Parents can share information or pick up information that they might not have known before just by listening to everybody,” she said. “We also have some resource tables here tonight so families can pick up some information about community organizations that can help our families.”
EFMP is a Department of Defense program for all active-duty service members with a special needs family member and connects them with resources, support services, educational classes and workshops, and host outreach activities.
Castro said, “At all three installations we have young families just starting their career and those who come to San Antonio to retire who are at the end of their career. There’s a mix of young and older families, young and older kids.”
According to Beard, this is the largest EFMP Family Support event each year and allows the Hearts Apart families, who are geographically separated due to military obligations through the holidays, to meet and develop a community.
“It’s all about fellowship,” Beard said. “We love our families. I love seeing the children’s faces and the families’ faces. This is one of our most fun events. I absolutely love it!”
A Band of the West quartet performed festive music throughout the evening that concluded with a musically-accompanied reading of ‘The Nutcracker’ for the children. There were also special guests such as a Brooke Army Medical Center therapy dog, Huckleberry, and Santa, who was available for free photos with the families.
For more information about JBSA EFMP Family Support, visit their website at https://www.jbsa.mil/Resources/Military-Family-Support/Military-Family-Readiness/EFMP/.
For information about Hearts Apart, view the Military and Family Readiness website for Deployment Readiness at https://www.jbsa.mil/Resources/Military-Family-Readiness/Deployment-Readiness/.
| Date Taken: | 12.02.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 12.27.2022 10:12 |
| Story ID: | 435671 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 73 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, EFMP, Hearts Apart celebrate the holidays with JBSA families, by Stefanie Antosh, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
Community Outreach
Joint Base San Antonio (Lackland Randolph Sam Houston)
