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FORT HOOD, Texas — When you're in your hometown it's relatively
easy to find people who you can trust with your child's care because
there's a familiarity that comes with being in one's hometown.
But who does the young family turn to when it's new to the Army,
its first duty station is Fort Hood, and it doesn't know who to
trust?
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Sharon Padgett, Evelyn Pannell and Kasey Sanders, members of the
Fort Hood Volunteer Childcare Fund, distribute information about
their nonprofit organization Friday, Feb. 14, 2013, at the
Commissary in Fort Hood, Texas. "We just want to grow the program,"
said Pannell. "We just want to get volunteers using it." (Courtesy
Photo)
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“I didn't know a lot of people when I first came here,
you don't know where to leave your children, you don't know
who to trust,” said Robin Crouse, a former recipient of the
childcare fund. “The volunteer childcare fund provided me a
safe environment for my children to allow me to do that.”
By providing childcare for people, the Fort Hood
Volunteer Childcare Fund creates an opportunity for people
to interact and build relationships within the community.
Founded in 1989, the FHVCCF is a private non-profit
organization dedicated to raising money to pay the childcare
costs for people who want to volunteer.
The
organization pays for up to 40 hours of childcare a month
per child at places like the Fort Hood Child Development
Center for those who volunteer with approved organizations.
“To have to pay childcare is very cost prohibitive,”
said Evelyn Pannell, president of the FHVCCF. “So this came
about when everyone saw there was a need to fill a void, so
that the volunteer pool would be larger, and the obstacle of
childcare would be out of the way.”
The USO, the Red
Cross, and the Enlisted Spouse's Club are a few of the many
organizations working with the FHVCCF.
With many shifts
to fill, the USO relies on manpower that comes from
volunteers.
“I believe it's a very critical program,
because most of our volunteers do utilize the childcare
fund,” said Ruben Bocanegra, the USO volunteer manager.
“This is a volunteer-run center; without the volunteers we
won't be able to provide the services we need for our troops
and families.”
Since the volunteers work with places
such as the USO and the Red Cross, a lot of the work they do
is easily translated into job skills such as office
management and customer service experience.
“It gives
people a chance to get out of the house, volunteering on
Fort Hood, and making those connections that could very
easily lead to employment,” said Pannell, who was previously
stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y., where an organization similar
to the FHVCCF exist as well. “It gives you valuable skills
that you can fall back on when you do go down the road to
perhaps look for a job.”
Now the director of the USO,
Crouse credits her previous years of volunteering for her
job success. Due to the fund, she was given the opportunity
to learn job skills she otherwise couldn't obtain without
the assistance of the childcare fund.
“As a
volunteer, I heavily relied on the volunteer childcare fund,
back in 2004 and 2005, to be able to give my time back to
the USO, and to learn very lucrative job skills,” said
Crouse, former vice president of the childcare fund. “I
think that is how I got to be the director because I was
able to volunteer, to learn skills at the USO that were
translatable later, and I couldn't have done that without
the volunteer childcare fund.”
In addition to
building job skills, it also provides an opportunity to get
out of the house, and escape from the mundane to interact
with people.
“It's great,” said Elizabeth Butler, a
USO volunteer who's been using the fund since October 2013.
“I get to come and volunteer and do something for the
community here at the USO, and my son gets to be with
children and interact over there. It has really helped both
of us to get out of the house, and I appreciate how it's
free for volunteers.”
However, even with all of its
successes, the visibility of the FHVCCF has decreased in
recent years. Currently, the organization has fewer than 30
approved volunteers, but they would like to see their number
of recipients increase to at least 150.
“What I
really want to do is get awareness out, and build
partnerships with these organizations, so they know to tell
their volunteers about us,” said Pannell. “We'd love to
almost run out of money. We'd love to have to worry about
money.”
To utilize the FHVCCF, people must first
register their children with Child, Youth and School
Services. Afterwards, potential recipients simply need to
fill out an application found either on the Fort Hood
Volunteer Childcare Fund Facebook page or at The Lane
Volunteer Center.
“When I came here I didn't know
anybody, and for me I was lonely,” said Crouse. “How do you
make friends? Some of the best quality friends that you'll
ever make are the ones who have a giving heart.”
By U.S. Army Spc. Marcus Floyd
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2014
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