Photo By Marc Loi | With more than 2,500 charities from which to choose, the Combined Federal Campaign is...... read more read more
FORWARD OPERATING SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - Although the Combined Federal Campaign was started in 1961 with an executive order signed by then President John F. Kennedy, its spirit was best captured by another commander-in-chief when, in the 2007 book "Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World," former President Bill Clinton wrote: "There's a whole world out there that needs you. Down the street or across the ocean -- give."
Here in southern Kandahar, soldiers from the 504th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade of Fort Hood, Texas, deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, are taking those words to heart. In the two weeks since the yearly fundraising efforts began, they have donated more than $7,000 to some of the more than 2,500 charities sanctioned by CFC, said Maj. Thomas Adkins, the 504th BfSB community area project officer.
The only organization authorized to solicit donations from federal employees in the workplace, CFC holds its annual drive from Sept. 1 through Dec. 15 each year, giving employees a chance to donate to their favorite charities through payroll deductions each year. In recent years, the process also became easier, as donations that were only previously possible through filling out paperwork can now be done online. Such convenience, said Adkins, is yet another reason soldiers are welcoming the drive with open arms.
“When I was a young lieutenant, the little paper slip was the only way to donate,” Adkins, of Clearwater, Fla., said. “Now, you can give three ways: the traditional paper route, the online printed pledge, and there’s an option to do paperless donations online.”
Giving soldiers the opportunity to donate online is especially in the current operational tempo environment, Adkins said, partly because soldiers are often separated from their units on the battlefield, distances often stretched through different areas of operations.
Although the goal for each unit’s representative is to make 100 percent contacts, soldiers aren’t always in the position to send slips of paper back in for the donations to be finalized. In addition, because of operational tempo, the CFC is something that allows them to spend what Adkins estimated to be about five minutes to fill out paperwork and not be bothered again until next year, all at the same time still taking care of their favorite charities. As an example, soldiers currently serving outside of the U.S., whether deployed or at a duty station, can simply log onto www.cfcoverseas.org to donate, and each year, they will receive friendly e-mail reminders of when CFC donation season has kicked off again.
“Life gets busy,” Adkins said. “You might just forget about your favorite charities over time and CFC comes along and it’s like an e-mail reminder saying, ‘Hey, have you thought about your favorite charities lately?’”
Along with quick access, another reason CFC proved to be popular with soldiers is the plethora of charitable organizations. The organizations CFC endorses as eligible for donations range from charities that help children to those supporting women’s reproductive health and choices, political organizations to military veteran organizations, environmental charities to Christian organizations that aim at spreading the Word of Christ. Because the Army comprises of various soldiers with different values and convictions, the choices also vary, making it easier for soldiers to give, Adkins said.
“If you pick up one of the booklets and you don’t know what you’re looking for, you can be a bit overwhelmed,” Adkins said. “There are plenty of choices out there.”
These conveniences, along with small payroll deductions taken out of each soldier’s pay every month, is a mean to ensuring soldiers wishing to donate can do so without the constraints of access or, in some cases, financial challenges, Adkins said.
“That’s one of the beauties of CFC,” he said. “For what seems like a minimal amount to a soldier – you hardly notice $10 a month in the grand schemes of things, over the course of the year, that’s $120. That $120 is a small fortune for a lot of these organizations.
“Multiply that by soldiers who give $10 a month and the number increases exponentially,” Adkins added. Only two months into the 2011 CFC season, even with some units beginning the program later than others, the CFC Overseas campaign has already netted $6,054,243 in donations.
More than just the time-saving methods of giving and the small donations that add up, however, Adkins said perhaps the biggest reason to give is the soldiers’ heart. Whereas career choices are made for different reasons, one of the reasons Adkins joined the Army, he said, was to give back and it’s the reason he said he believes many other soldiers have for putting on the uniform.
“One of the reasons I joined is to make a difference in the lives of others, and giving to charities is one of those ways we can make a great difference on the world as opposed to just our own area,” Adkins added.
As with other campaigns in the Army, the “lead by example” mantra is one officers and non-commissioned officers are taking on in the 504th BfSB, and Adkins said leaders must not only stress to their soldiers the importance of CFC, but also take actions in the process. Although policy prohibits leaders from soliciting soldiers in making donations mandatory, one way leaders can inspire young soldiers to donate is to also do so themselves.
“You’ve got to walk the walk,” Adkins said. “You can’t go up and ask others to do it if you’re not doing it yourself.”
In fact, Adkins is doing just that, not only taking on the task of contacting soldiers about CFC, but also making donations to his own favorite charities and taping the receipt on his door. His action has also inspired another leader close by his office to do the same, and soldiers are taking notice. In fact, junior enlisted soldiers, to date, comprise of the bulk of the donations, something Adkins said he is glad for.
“I am pleasantly surprised that the junior soldiers have stood up in higher numbers than I’ve anticipated,” he said. “That’s just the beauty of it – at this point, the majority of the donations are from junior soldiers.”
One of those soldiers is Spc. Christina Borck, a Delta, Ohio native. An intelligent analyst with the brigade, Borck readily jumped at the chance to donate to her favorite charity when the campaign kicked off. One of the reasons was the convenience as well as the availability of the various organizations she said, but more importantly, because she believed in giving.
“Honestly, I think that you should give to an organization when you can,” Borck said, almost as if giving is a second-nature to soldiers. “So what better time to give than when we’re deployed and already saving money?
“They had just about every organization in there,” she added. “You can always find something to cut back on, and I’ve been saving enough money to donate.”
| Date Taken: | 11.15.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 11.17.2011 01:42 |
| Story ID: | 80136 |
| Location: | SPIN BOLDAK, AF |
| Web Views: | 144 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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