WEBVTT 00:01.639 --> 00:03.250 Yeah , today is the Military 00:03.250 --> 00:05.472 Appreciation picnic being put on by the 00:05.472 --> 00:07.528 Chamber of Commerce from the city of 00:07.528 --> 00:09.840 Sumter , inviting some local members of 00:09.850 --> 00:11.906 the chamber out here to come out and 00:12.029 --> 00:14.029 serve up some food to the airmen as 00:14.029 --> 00:16.140 well as uh uh give some donations out 00:16.140 --> 00:18.251 there . Get some folks to know what's 00:18.251 --> 00:20.307 going on in the community and what's 00:20.307 --> 00:22.473 available to them out there . Yeah , I 00:22.473 --> 00:24.640 mean , it's , it's pretty awesome . It 00:24.640 --> 00:26.807 makes me smile uh On here every time I 00:26.807 --> 00:26.590 come down here to , to see the 00:26.600 --> 00:28.767 volunteers that they bring with them , 00:28.767 --> 00:30.933 uh you know , serve food to our airmen 00:30.933 --> 00:32.878 and they , they have huge grins on 00:32.878 --> 00:34.989 their face too . They live for this , 00:34.989 --> 00:34.209 this type of event where they get a 00:34.220 --> 00:36.553 chance to give back to our , our airmen . 00:36.553 --> 00:38.609 Um So it's fun to see them out there 00:38.609 --> 00:40.720 having a good time . Uh It's great to 00:40.720 --> 00:42.776 see our airmen in such a large drove 00:42.776 --> 00:44.887 showing up to an event like this , uh 00:44.887 --> 00:46.942 you know , to make it worthwhile for 00:46.942 --> 00:49.109 folks , but also for them to know that 00:49.109 --> 00:48.709 they're valued and treasured by the 00:48.720 --> 00:50.609 community here . So it's a really 00:50.609 --> 00:53.220 heartwarming event . Uh My favorite 00:53.229 --> 00:54.951 part is getting to see all the 00:54.951 --> 00:57.007 community members that come out here 00:57.007 --> 00:59.062 and seeing them interact uh with our 00:59.062 --> 00:58.990 airmen . It's always fun obviously to , 00:59.180 --> 01:01.560 to , to see uh Derek on the uh you know , 01:01.569 --> 01:03.513 spinning the discs and getting the 01:03.513 --> 01:05.736 music going off there and , and run the 01:05.736 --> 01:07.902 MC job . Um But yeah , it , it is just 01:07.902 --> 01:10.013 super awesome to get them to , to see 01:10.013 --> 01:09.389 the interactions between the airmen and 01:09.400 --> 01:11.678 the community on , on this basis today . 01:13.319 --> 01:15.970 Um We are here today to give our 01:15.980 --> 01:18.202 chamber members the opportunity to give 01:18.202 --> 01:20.559 back to the service , men and women of 01:20.569 --> 01:23.419 Shaw . Um We're here to feed them lunch 01:23.430 --> 01:25.652 and to just give them an opportunity to 01:25.652 --> 01:27.819 showcase their business to the men and 01:27.819 --> 01:29.986 women that maybe they wouldn't have an 01:29.986 --> 01:31.930 opportunity to see and talk to and 01:31.930 --> 01:34.152 again , just give back in a big way , I 01:34.152 --> 01:36.449 think , uncommon patriotism , which is 01:36.459 --> 01:39.169 the city's uh tag line . It's , it's 01:39.180 --> 01:41.169 their um motto . I think that that 01:41.180 --> 01:43.347 really plays a huge part in what we're 01:43.347 --> 01:45.750 doing today . Um Shaw is a huge part of 01:45.760 --> 01:47.649 Sumter , a huge part of our , our 01:47.649 --> 01:49.760 community and we just wanna give back 01:49.760 --> 01:51.871 in whichever way we can . Um And this 01:51.871 --> 01:54.410 is a way to bring in our members and 01:54.419 --> 01:56.730 connect them with the women and men of 01:56.739 --> 02:00.690 Shaw . So I've been working with 02:00.699 --> 02:02.755 the City and the Chamber of Commerce 02:02.755 --> 02:04.921 and a lot of our agencies here on base 02:04.921 --> 02:07.032 to set up this event where we work to 02:07.032 --> 02:09.032 give back to our service members by 02:09.032 --> 02:11.143 letting them meet vendors and members 02:11.143 --> 02:13.310 of the Chamber of Commerce kind of get 02:13.310 --> 02:15.477 back experience , build that community 02:15.477 --> 02:15.429 connection because a lot of our service 02:15.440 --> 02:17.051 members don't always get the 02:17.051 --> 02:19.273 opportunity to make it down to the city 02:19.273 --> 02:21.162 and see these businesses that are 02:21.162 --> 02:23.384 contributing to supporting the base and 02:23.384 --> 02:25.329 building that community . We start 02:25.329 --> 02:27.496 planning this probably around mid July 02:27.496 --> 02:29.329 by initially reaching out to the 02:29.329 --> 02:31.273 Chamber of Commerce for Sumter and 02:31.273 --> 02:33.440 setting a date and then we work to set 02:33.440 --> 02:35.607 up planning meetings with offices like 02:35.607 --> 02:37.273 legal here on base , airfield 02:37.273 --> 02:39.496 management . Uh The team here at hangar 02:39.496 --> 02:41.718 611 and we set up weekly meetings where 02:41.718 --> 02:43.996 we go over due out , set up a planning . 02:43.996 --> 02:46.162 We've kind of got it down to a science 02:46.162 --> 02:48.384 at this point thankfully . So it gets a 02:48.384 --> 02:47.759 little bit easier every year . But we 02:47.770 --> 02:49.881 find those small improvements to make 02:49.881 --> 02:51.881 it a little bit more personable , a 02:51.881 --> 02:53.770 little more connected between the 02:53.770 --> 02:55.659 chamber and Shaw . So our service 02:55.659 --> 02:57.770 members get an even better experience 02:57.770 --> 02:57.610 every year . We do this military 02:57.619 --> 03:00.820 appreciation picnic . Yeah . So teams 03:00.830 --> 03:03.052 shaw itself , the team that operates on 03:03.052 --> 03:04.941 base daily is around 8000 service 03:04.941 --> 03:07.052 members and the military appreciation 03:07.052 --> 03:09.052 picnic is open to all those service 03:09.052 --> 03:10.830 members . Normally our military 03:10.830 --> 03:12.830 appreciation picnic attendance look 03:12.830 --> 03:14.941 somewhere around the 700 to 800 total 03:14.941 --> 03:16.997 of that team coming out and enjoying 03:16.997 --> 03:19.052 the food kind of rotating through as 03:19.052 --> 03:21.386 they can . So the chambers on the grill , 03:21.386 --> 03:23.608 they man all the fooding and staffing . 03:23.608 --> 03:25.497 We get members of the chamber who 03:25.497 --> 03:27.719 volunteer their time , take time off of 03:27.719 --> 03:27.210 work to come out and cook . And it's 03:27.220 --> 03:29.387 just some nice fashion , picnic food , 03:29.387 --> 03:31.498 burgers , hot dogs chips and some mac 03:31.498 --> 03:32.130 and cheese sometimes .