ANDREWS AFB, Md. –
The Airman and Family Readiness Center is currently in the process of re-establishing the base volunteer program.
According to Ms. Daina Hewlett, 316 MSS Airman and Family Readiness Center outbound assistant and volunteer coordinator, the A&FRC is required to maintain the volunteer program for the entire base, per AFI 36-3009-3.11.
The AFI states that the Airman and Family Readiness Center assists the installation commander and collaborates with other base volunteer agencies to recruit, plan, train, and place and recognize volunteer services. The Air Force Volunteer Excellence Award (VEA) is a commander's program to recognize volunteer contributions across the installation. The Air Force Personnel Center provides guidance for the process in the A&FRC information management system, said Ms. Hewlett.
"The A&FRC is updating the volunteer program in two specific ways,"
said Ms. Hewlett. "First, Andrews members interested in volunteering on base need to register at the center. Second, organizations around the base interested in having volunteers, should contact the center to access the volunteer pool.
"We've had a lot of success over the past few weeks getting base organizations to participate and register with us," said Ms. Hewlett.
"We have the Fisher House, Airman's Attic, and Outdoor Recreation Center, all on board as far as coordinating with us. We still have many more organizations to get in touch with to start the process. In the past three months, we've gone from a handful of registered volunteers to approximately 25, so the program is growing."
"One of the primary reasons for the volunteer program," said Ms.
Hewlett, "is to assist base personnel who would like to get experience in the volunteer program, provide spouses with work experience and unit members with volunteer experience for EPRs and OPRs.
"Every April during National Volunteer Week we will be doing a volunteer recognition ceremony. By keeping track of hours, we'll have an idea as to how many hours our volunteers worked base wide," she continued. "Last quarter, just from the three different agencies that we had signed on, we already calculated over 336 volunteer hours.
Imagine multiplying that over all the quarters, across the base and imagine what we'll end up having at the end of the year -- that's a huge number of hours that our volunteers on this base."
Volunteers can register with the A&FRC. "Any active duty military member, retiree, family member, student, DoD, or civilian with base access can volunteer on base," said Ms. Hewlett. "It's summer vacation -- it's the perfect time for students to get their volunteer hours in, especially if they are here in Prince George's County."
In addition, the volunteer program offers in-home child care support for the volunteer's children.
For more information, contact Ms. Daina Hewlett at 240-857-6008.