The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is charged with overseeing all Combined Federal Campaigns (CFC) award certificates for outstanding performance to CFC organizations that achieved outstanding results during the 2008 CFC drive. The South Hampton Roads CFC was recognized, among a select few, for a 13.9 percent increase in giving over the previous year’s drive.

Two Lieutenants Serve Their Country, Get Closer by Saving Lives through Fundraising

A team of about 30 military personnel and government workers get on their bikes and hit the streets and paths around the Washington, D.C. area to enjoy the sport of bicycling to raise money for various causes. One of those causes is the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) Hampton Roads Tour de Cure. Since 2005, the Blue Suit Pacers have fielded a team to participate in the annual ride. Since then, between nine and 16 members make the trip from Northern Virginia to the Tour destination. They not only train to ride, but they are always in the Top Ten Fundraising Teams for the event!

It was the perfect storm in a Sailor’s life.

For an area such as Hampton Roads, protecting and cleaning the waters of the Chesapeake Bay is vitally important. For the past 21 years, military men and women at branches throughout the area have played a vital role in Clean the Bay Day, the annual litter pickup event organized by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). In fact, military personnel helped form the group that coordinated the first ever Clean the Bay Day in 1989. Since then the Hampton Roads military community, especially the Navy, has provided more than 30,500 personnel for the annual cleanup effort – nearly one third of the volunteers who have ever participated, according to Sharon Smith, CBF’s Clean the Bay Day coordinator.

Lisa Moore, chair of the Interdisciplinary Department at Regent University and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, is thankful for what Girl Scouts provided her growing up. Like many other women in leadership roles, she feels Girl Scouting played a part in her ability to take on responsibility and accept challenges in her career.

Our lives have changed since becoming a Habitat homeowner.

Since May 1970, the National League of POW/MIA Families has worked for the release of all United States Prisoners of War, the fullest possible accounting for the missing, and repatriation of all recoverable remains of those who died serving our nation during the Vietnam War.

What do Sea Cadets do? Cadets have the opportunity to participate in almost 200 different training activities across the United States and around the globe. These include aviation, air traffic control, culinary arts, fire fighting, homeland security, maritime industrial arts, marine animal sciences, medicine, intelligence, scuba diving, sailing, engineering, underwater archeological research and an international exchange with 14 countries to name only a few. With almost 400 units in almost every state, the Naval Sea Cadet Corps (NSCC) has been offering hands-on training to both youth age 14 to 17 and our Navy League Cadet Corps (NLCC) age 10-13 for almost 50 years. They develop the skills necessary to do well in school. Sea and League Cadets do a lot.

Sometimes, despite the odds, dreams of success really do come true. Kielin Dunn had goals for his life, but he found himself in a situation that made those dreams seem impossible.

You are 11 years old. You live on a military base in Yongsan in Seoul, Korea. You are excited for the day, because you, your younger sister, and your mother are going out for the day. As your mother is preparing for what will inevitably prove an exhausting adventure, there is a knock on the door. Two men in uniform stand there. As you and your sister dutifully play outside – exploring the parks, climbing trees, and bickering – the two men tell your mother that her husband, your father, a West Point graduate, a 20-plus year soldier, a Special Operations hero, is dead. And then you wake up. That was my Sept. 24, 1994.

Senior Master Sgt. John Borden Jr. was at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea when his daughter, who lives at St. Mary’s Home for Disabled Children in Norfolk, went to the prom for the first time. But he still got to see the broad smile on Aly’s face as her date held her hands and helped her move about in her wheelchair while a DJ played dance music in St. Mary’s Atrium.

When the Rice family took a trip to Michigan, they brought along someone who had been a part of their lives less than a year. Eleven-year Dennis Jones had been paired with Navy Lt. Luke Rice of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 40, and his wife, Aimee last fall through The Up Center’s Team Up Mentoring program. Since that time, they have treated Dennis like a son.

Each year, military family members are shot out of a raging volcano, drenched by wet, wild rides, and catapulted at near light-speed. The children and adults are generally catered to any way they want: standing up, sitting down, hanging upside-down, suspended in thin air and twisted into unusual positions. It might sound like a typical fun day at Kings Dominion, but what makes this so special is that it is for military families with Exceptional Family Members (EFMs) who are terminally ill or otherwise have a progressive, critical illness.

Three days a week, specially equipped Air Force transports fly precious cargo from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany into Andrews Air Force Base just outside Washington, D.C. They are returning wounded heroes from Iraq and Afghanistan to America.

He remembers pulling into the parking lot in the ambulance, responding to a breathing difficulty call. Suddenly, the patient went into cardiac arrest. Alex Hebert and two other members of the Virginia Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad went to work, bringing the patient back to life.

Imagine the hand of a small child in Park Place School, fingering the strings of a cello for the first time, eyes wide with excitement. Imagine the smile of pride of the homeless middle school student at ForKids, composing music on a computer with music notation software. Enjoy the soaring grin of accomplishment of the high school horn player as the professional musician resident in his school praises his performance in a master class. Experience your own young musician playing side by side on stage at Chrysler Hall with the Symphony musicians. These are real stories taking place all over Hampton Roads every year through the Virginia Symphony Orchestra education programs.