Article Display

Community shares holiday treats with Airmen

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jonathan Bass
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  For the 20th straight year, Airmen and Soldiers living in the dorms have received holiday cookies from the Sumter community.

More than 100 volunteers worked to both collect the cookies and bag them for the Airmen and Soldiers.

"We do this event to bring holiday spirit to the Airmen and Soldiers living in the dorms and to continue the fantastic relationship between Shaw and the Sumter community," said Cathy Kneuer, Shaw Officers' Souses' Club president.

The SOSC worked with the Enlisted Spouses Club and the Shaw Airman Leadership School along with U.S. Air Forces Central, the 20th Operations Group, 20th Electronic Maintenance Squadron, the Company Grade Officers Club and Air Force Sergeants Association to bag and distribute the donated cookies.

"I think this event is important because it gives back to the Airmen, as we should, to show thanks for what they do," said Senior Master Sgt. Demetrius Jones, AFCENT superintendent of plans, programs and implementation, who volunteered for the event.

Total cookies donated this year top last year's total by more than 2,000.

Community children also donated more than 5,300 thank you cards which were passed out with the treats.

The cookies were made by Sumter residents and delivered to the business center at Swan Lake, Sumter, S.C., before being transported to the base community center to be bagged and distributed.

Jones said that the overwhelming number of cookies had some coordinators worried, but so many volunteers showed up at Swan Lake that transporting cookies was easily accomplished.

Come Thursday, it became organized chaos, said Jones.

"We all worked together;" said Jones. "From the Sumter community making the cookies, to the Airmen and civilians bringing the cookies on base and getting them into the bags, and the first sergeants delivering the cookies to the Airmen and Soldiers in the dorms. It was phenomenal; it was a sight to see."