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Show HILLTOP TIMES TimEs 9 Jan. 19, 2012 DEPLOYED From page 9 Above a mom and her child find a quiet moment to look at a recordable book at the Deployed Spouses and Families Appreciation event at the Airman and Family Readiness Center on Jan. 14. Below left, John Palmer holds up his daughter, Rebecca. His wife is Staff Sgt. Pepper Palmer of the 75th Air Base Wing. Below right, the Airman and Family Readiness Center event was set up so that families could come and go at their leisure. Moondog Café once again helped by supplying their famous potato chips as part of the food donations. "It's nice we don't have to cook dinner and all the goodies we get for the kids, I'm sure they'll love them," said Lei Chen, whose husband left for Kuwait that morning. "I'm super grateful for something like this." No formal briefings were given, but rather the event flowed as people drifted in and out of the conference room at the AFRC at their own leisure. Rodgerson received 180 RSVPs to the event and as the event started to gain traction, more and more came through to relax and commune. "To me, it was just really important that the spouses had a chance to meet other deployed spouses and connect with them, whether it was just basic mentorship, or to set up play dates, etc." said Rodgerson. The idea came about from the 75th Logistics Readiness Squadron Lead Key Spouse, Jessica Schanke. Schanke was the one who contacted the USO about the donated items. There are currently around 600 members of Team Hill who are deployed and Col. Sarah Zabel said she was amazed to see the magnitude of the spouses all together in one room and to grasp just how many are off serving. She also showed gratitude for the support, saying. "I'm impressed by the support we get and really happy for the occasion." KIM COOK/U.S. Air Force Above, Cindy Rodgerson, Key Spouse mentor, shows a bear provided by the USO which comes with a journal. Above Ethan and Aden Beringer, high five McGruff the Crime Dog. |