Martin Luther King Day of Service at Travis

Published Jan. 16, 2015
By Staff Sgt. Christopher Carranza
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The Travis Air Force Base Airman and Family Readiness Center is seeking help from volunteers to set its own record of $100,000 worth of service Monday on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service for the local community.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?"

According to nationalservice.gov, "Each year, Americans across the country answer that question by coming together on the King Holiday to serve their neighbors and communities. The Day of Service is a part of United We Serve, the president's national call to service initiative."

Here at Travis, the focal point for volunteer opportunities and information is ran by Nakisha Rodriguez, A&FRC Base Volunteer Program manager, who works hand in hand with more than 60 partner agencies on and off base.

"We encourage service members to get out and volunteer on this day of service to help others throughout the community by donating a little bit of their time," Rodriguez said. "By doing so, we not only save money for the benefactors, but we reinforce our ties with our community, promote ambassadorship and camaraderie among all the participants."

The A&FRC's goal is to have 1,250 volunteers each donate four hours per person. That totals 5,000 hours at the approximate value of $20 an hour, which equals $100,000. The estimated national value of volunteer time for 2013 was $22.55 per hour and for the state of California was $26.34 according to independentsector.org.

"We had a very successful last year, having over 18,000 volunteer hours logged and this year we seek to improve on that," said Tom Bradley, A&FRC chief. "We have outstanding volunteers throughout the installation such as Tech. Sgt. Truman Reither, 571st Mission Support Advisory Squadron, who has been our champion from the Contingency Response Wing and a big help with the Habitat for Humanity. Master Sgt. Justin Doub, 60th Civil Engineer Squadron, who has been instrumental by motivating other CE volunteers utilizing their skills for renovating homes, just to name a few."

To view volunteer listings, register and log volunteer hours visit the website at http://bit.ly/1FSinhM. For more information about the A&FRC visit, www.travisafrc.com or call 424-2486.