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Third Army families work together at retreat

  • Published
  • By Stephenie Tatum
  • Third Army/ARCENT Public Affairs
Asheville, N.C. --  Twenty Third Army/ARCENT families paused their everyday lives July 27 to 29 and traveled to the Renaissance Asheville Hotel in Asheville, N.C. for a Strong Bonds family retreat.

Hosted by the Third Army/ARCENT Special Troops Battalion Chaplain's Office, the three-day retreat was an opportunity for families to learn how to become more effective as individuals and as a group, enjoy quality time together, as well as enjoy the city of Asheville and all it has to offer.

For many, the weekend was the first chance to enjoy life as a family unit because of deployments or other military obligations.

"The retreat definitely benefited my family because my husband recently returned from Kuwait. This was our first family time in a while. I liked how they incorporated a date night and provided childcare for the evening as well," said Sgt. AnnKatherine C. McIver, Third Army/ARCENT Special Troops Battalion personnel actions noncommissioned officer who has been in the Army for six years.

McIver and her husband, Sgt. Travis McIver, who is an administrative noncommissioned officer in Third Army/ARCENT's Inspector General Office and an Orangeburg S.C. native, attended the retreat with their 22-month-old daughter, Aliyanah Tyree.

Sessions during the retreat were based on the Army-approved training, "7 Habits of Highly Effective Families for Army Families" by Stephen Covey. Family and financial issues, deployments, relocation, separation, parenting and other topics were discussed with the goal of helping the group to become more successful and prepared as military families.

During the training sessions, children were invited and encouraged to attend the training with the adults, if age appropriate. Many of the activities involved families working together to solve problems or complete a project as a group. For families with small children, childcare was provided free of charge.

"Having the children actually participating in the training and not simply in childcare down the hall is a new experience for many that attended previous training events. During one activity where the children joined their parents in preparing a family mission statement collage, one couple commented how nice it was to have their young toddler with them. 'We were starting to miss her,' they said, as they watched their young daughter add her own scribbles to the family project," said Capt. Karlyn Maschhoff, Third Army/ARCENT STB chaplain and native of Cedar Crest, N.M.

Maschhoff, who has been in the Army for eight years and conducting Strong Bonds training events for seven went on to say, "My hope is that families recognize the strengths each member brings and discover how those strengths can work together to make the family stronger and better prepared for the challenges ahead. I hope that through the training, our families find the encouragement they need to get through difficult times by staying focused on the values that are important to them and the goals they wish to achieve as a family."