![\"\"](\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2020\/12\/6457350-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOperation challenges brought on by COVID-19 didn\u2019t stop Hawaii Air National Guard Airmen from continuing their tradition of giving this 2020 holiday season.
As part of their efforts to help provide community members in-need with a \u2018little something nice\u2019 during the holiday months, Airmen from the 154th Logistics Readiness Squadron participated in an Angel Tree donation program. The project, sponsored by the Salvation Army, engages volunteers to gather donations to fulfill Christmas wish lists for in-need elderly and children.
\u201cIt\u2019s gratifying to be able to give back to the community,\u201d said Tech. Sgt. Ashley Mooney, 154th LRS first sergeant and a co-coordinator for this year\u2019s effort. \u201cI think this year hits a little harder with the layoffs happening in the community due to COVID. Knowing that so many of our neighbors are seeking help during this time, we felt an even stronger urge to give support.\u201d
Wish lists are curated from \u2018kupuna\u2019 (elderly) and \u2018keiki\u2019 (children) by the Salvation Army. Those wish lists are then transposed on gift tags that are then hung amongst ornaments on a participating organization\u2019s \u2018Angel Tree\u2019 Christmas Tree. Those wanting to donate, visit the tree, pull a gift tag of their choosing and go about acquiring the items on the list. The gifts are then brought back where they are collected and organized before being delivered to the Salvation Army for final delivery.
This year\u2019s Angel Tree marks the 3rd straight year LRS Airmen have participated in the charitable program. In previous years, teams of LRS Airmen would man multiple Angel Tree shifts at a local mall, interacting with shoppers and encouraging HIANG members to stop-by to pull a wishlist to fulfill.<\/p>\n
Helping to spearhead the Angel Tree effort was Senior Airman Kathryn Bayudan, a material management specialist with the squadron. According to Bayudan, LRS Airmen participate in several volunteer charitable programs every year. For example, in a normal year, Airmen would fan out to support programs at the Ronald McDonald House or volunteer at Meals-on-wheels efforts across the island. The ongoing outbreak suppressed some of those efforts, however the Angel Tree provided an opportunity to keep the giving going this year. Story by Staff Sgt. Orlando Corpuz Photos by Staff Sgt. Orlando Corpuz; Senior Airman John Linzmeier Operation challenges brought on by COVID-19 didn\u2019t stop Hawaii Air National Guard Airmen from continuing their tradition of giving this 2020 holiday season. As part of their efforts to help provide community members in-need with a \u2018little something nice\u2019 Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":4905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4902"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4910,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902\/revisions\/4910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
This year however, COVID-19 limited the Airmen to one shift at the mall. Undaunted by the reduction in shifts, a decision was made to expand the program to the HIANG campus by sponsoring an Angel Tree at the LRS facility for HIANG personnel to directly take-part in the giving.
For Mooney, the Angel Tree effort is something she has extensive experience with, having participated in Angel Tree programs as a former member of the Maryland Air National Guard.
\u201cMy husband and I became involved in the Angel Tree in Maryland back in 2009,\u201d said Mooney. \u201cHe had participated in the program while in Noncommissioned Officer Academy at McGhee Tyson and for eight years we collected gifts from our Wing members and worked at the warehouse to distribute the collections to the families in need of the service.\u201d
When the time came to uproot and move to Hawaii to join the HIANG, the call to give followed.
\u201cWe wanted to bring that partnership with us and continue being involved in this program,\u201d Mooney said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that we love doing and look forward to every year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a strong tradition of LRS Airmen volunteering in the community so this is definitely something that we want to keep going,\u201d Bayudan said. \u201cThe holidays can be a time of stress for some and I want to be a part of something that can help out during these times.\u201d
Efforts by Bayudan and her fellow Airmen have amounted to enough donations to fulfill more than 80 separate wish lists this year.
\u201cIt feels like I\u2019m doing something really big,\u201d said Bayudan. \u201cI\u2019m fortunate to have my family and to be able to provide a nice Christmas for them, but there\u2019s others who are not as fortunate or maybe just need a little help.That\u2019s what this is all about, helping that little bit to ensure someone in-need has at the very least, a nice present during these holiday seasons.\u201d
The Angel Tree has even sparked a little friendly competition amongst different squadrons in the HIANG.
\u201cFor next year, there\u2019s talk about possibly having more than one tree in the HIANG for wider reach,\u201d Mooney said. \u201cWe even talked about having a contest for most \u2018Angels\u2019 supported.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"