USFK Units Honored for CFC Donations

It is always impressive the amount of money the military is able to raise for charities through the Combined Federal Campaign:

Representatives from units and fraternal organizations throughout South Korea gathered at the Yongsan Multiplex Theater on Tuesday for the 2006 Combined Federal Campaign awards ceremony.

More than 170 awards were given to the units with the largest percentages of members donating to CFC and with the largest average donations.

Awards fell into four categories: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. More than half of the awards fell into the upper two categories, with 54 units receiving the platinum award for at least 85 percent participation and an average gift of $200 and 49 units earning gold for 60 percent participation and an average donation of $120. Air Force Lt. Gen. Steve Wood, 7th Air Force commander, served as guest speaker and presented awards.

Describing CFC as the most inclusive charitable organization in the world, he explained why he felt donating was important. “CFC is a big deal,” he said. “It’s one of the ways we give back to the community and make things better.” According to Wood, CFC-Overseas generated more than $1.5 million in 2006, with 10 percent of the donations coming from within U.S. Forces Korea.

For those not in the military reading this, every year the military encourages soldiers to choose a charity that is part of the CFC to donate money to.  The soldiers are given a book with a number of charities that the military has deemed to be legitimate and worthy of donations and then it is up to the soldier if he/she wants to donate money.  As you can see above the military raised $1.5 million dollars overseas with 10% coming from USFK which means USFK raised $150,000 dollars this year for charity. 

The other really good charity campaign the Army does is the Army Emergency Relief fund.  AER donations are used to allow soldiers to have immediate financial assistance in case of family emergencies.  Soldiers can apply for immediate financial assistance that will come in the form of either an interest free loan or an out right grant if the repayment of an interest free loan is to big of a financial burden on the soldier.  This program is truly soldiers taking care of their own.  AER is especially important for USFK because when soldiers have family members get critically ill, injured, or pass away; they can receive AER money to pay for their plane tickets back to the US.  The AER program in the Second Infantry Division I know is outstanding from personal experience from sending soldiers there for money and being approved the same day and flying home the next. 

So if you are not already donating through both the CFC and AER you really should because they are definitely both good programs worthy of a few extra bucks you may have available every month.