Photo By Staff Sgt. Gerardine Cadet | Soldiers and civilians from U.S. Army Central volunteered to assist with Shaw Heights...... read more read more
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SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C.—Twenty-four U.S. Army Central Soldiers and civilians volunteered to assist with Shaw Heights Elementary fall festival Oct. 23, 2023 on Shaw Air Force Base.
While at the fall festival, the volunteers assisted with the setup and teardown of the event, games and capturing photos.
Sergeant Maj. Rose. M. Byrd, USARCENT command career counselor, is the lead on connecting the command with schools in Sumter County. Throughout the event, Byrd stressed the importance of USARCENT Soldiers and civilians building relationships with the schools in their local community.
“A large portion of service members within USARCENT have children who attend schools within our community, so it is very important to build a relationship with them,” said Byrd. “Our children will represent our country in the future, and we need to do whatever it takes to invest in them.”
Events such as the fall festival assists in connecting the military and local community. Many of the volunteers who participated are both parents and USARCENT personnel. According to Bryd, the presence of USARCENT Soldiers and civilians at schools in the local community has the possibility of influencing positive behaviors and social skills amongst children.
According to volunteers, it’s important to support the local schools who ultimately support the local military families.
“I think overall it’s great. Kids grow up so fast. You blink your eyes and they’re out of the house,” said Staff Sgt. Douglas Ladd, USARCENT career counselor. “My daughter gets so excited to see me at her school. To those who volunteer their time so that parents like me get the time to enjoy these kinds of events with my children, I would like to say thank you.”
To date, Byrd has facilitated the adoption of 23 of 24 schools in Sumter County by USARCENT, with hopes of having all adopted soon. Byrd said that the local schools deserve support from the military community, and events like fall festival is an excellent way to provide it.
“Almost every school in our community has a parent in our organization who wants to volunteer at the school their child attends,” said Byrd. “Right now, the thing most requested of us is our time, which we are happy to give.”
USARCENT is the Army Service Component Command for United States Central Command and is responsible to the Secretary of the Army for the support and administration of more than 12,000 Soldiers, including those assigned to joint task forces and embassies, across the 21 countries in the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility.
| Date Taken: | 10.23.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 10.24.2023 14:42 |
| Story ID: | 456431 |
| Location: | SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 38 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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