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Neighborhood report

Community pitches in to aid those in military

MacDill Air Force Base's Family Support Center partners with corporations and others to brighten the holidays.

By SHELLEY KINSER
Published December 23, 2005

Last Christmas, when Sgt. Carlos Hernandez needed a loan to pay off his debts, the Army Emergency Relief Fund at MacDill Air Force Base's Family Support Center was there to help. It also directed him to Toys for Tots for gifts for his three children.

A year later, after working a second job and getting budget advice, he has paid back the no-interest loan.

"I am doing fine," said Hernandez, 28, who works at MacDill. "I am attending college online in business administration that the military pays for. I am in the second semester of a four-year program."

The Family Support Center offers emotional, financial and educational support to military families, including those who have a loved one deployed overseas. During the holidays, the center partners closely with community members and businesses.

"All year the community is amazing, (but) especially at the holidays, families call the center to adopt families. We may get three calls a week from local families wanting to help," said Master Sgt. John Close, a center manager.

Edna Fermin, a community readiness consultant at the center, has arranged for local families to adopt 10 military families this holiday season. An individual sponsor assisted another 46 families by organizing fundraisers, she said.

MacDill's Family Support Center is part of the Air Force 6th Air Mobility Wing but serves troops in other branches. The 4,000-square-foot center has 14 employees, including two in the military. Its programs cater to retirees, reservists and active duty personnel.

Some of the services involve corporations. A week before Thanksgiving, Philip Morris USA sponsored its third annual Thanksgiving dinner at the Brandon Elks Lodge. The Elks cooked the food, and Philip Morris representatives provided servers, goodie bags, children's activities and music. About 275 people attended.

The center partners with the local 4-H Operation Military Kids based in Seffner to help National Guard and Reserve families. The group recently filled a Patton tank with toys for military kids through the "Fill a Tank with Toys" program.

Operation Military Kids collected more than 1,000 toys, said Flo Hervey, the group's regional coordinator for Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Motorcyclists who rode from Tarpon Springs to Palm Harbor as part of Bike Fest donated about 600 toys. The rest came from dropoff boxes and a holiday event at the Pinellas County Extension Service in Largo.

The group distributed toys at holiday parties at armories across Central Florida, Hervey said. This marked the first year of "Fill a Tank."

"It's a great program, unique," Hervey said. "We targeted families of deployed National Guard and Reserves. Typically, active duty have resources, but for citizen soldiers' kids, there is a disconnect. Military life is new. They are thrown in all of a sudden."

The parties offered kids a chance to have fun with other kids in similar situations.

"The immediate result," Hervey said, "was that we have 300 to 400 happy kids who don't feel alone and feel that people care."

[Last modified December 22, 2005, 09:27:09]