WASHINGTON — Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) announced its 2018 Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) charity contribution goal of $1 million dollars during the CFC kick-off event Oct. 22 in Humphreys Building at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C.
Leading the CFC efforts for the NAVSEA enterprise this year is the Total Force & Corporate Operations directorate chaired by William Carty and Andrea Huston with campaign managers Adam Carpenter and Ernie Jopanda set to manage a team of 250 coordinators and key workers.
“We have an ambitious goal of $1 million this year,” NAVSEA Commander Vice Adm. Tom Moore said. “As a data point, last year, NAVSEA contributed more money to CFC than the Army and Air Force combined in the area. Your generosity in the past has been outstanding. I am looking for the same thing this year.”
“CFC is important and a chance to give and contribute not only on the monetary side of the house, but in terms of your time,” he said. “Everybody has a cause that’s important. All you have to do is look at the recent Hurricane Michael and look at what’s going on in Panama City and our tenant commands to know that CFC dollars go a long way to help families and friends throughout the country.”
The event’s guest speaker, retired Army Captain Alvin Shell, chief of security with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, talked about the personal impact charity organizations have had on his life and for his family.
“Being here physically, mentally and emotionally is from a road that has been paved by faith, family, really good doctors and from organizations that are right outside this room. I wouldn’t be here in any physical capacity without the organizations and without that makeup.”
Shell was on active duty and deployed to Iraq when he was wounded Aug. 31, 2004. A week prior to the fateful deployment he had a conversation with his sons, who were seven and nine years old, about why he had to deploy to Iraq.
“I remember standing in the hospital just before my deployment,” Shell said. “I was in the neonatal ICU. My youngest son had just been born and he was very premature. My oldest son, who has always been really, really book smart, asked, ‘Is that where you’re going, Dad?’ I said, ‘Yes, son that’s where I’m going.’”
“He said, ‘Why? Why do you have to go?’ As I stopped and paused, and tried to explain this nation’s mission to restore freedom around the world, my second son said, ‘I know why, Dad, you have to go.’ He said, ‘It’s easy. We’re the good guys. And Daddy’s one of the good guys.’”
“I remember taking that with me to Iraq. I remember taking that with me when I got stuck in real difficult situations as a lieutenant commanding my platoon and throughout the deployment. I kept that in my fiber. I try to keep that with me now.”
Shell spoke candidly about his physical injuries and the emotional struggles of being a 100 percent disabled. The instantaneous change impacted his family’s financial means and lifestyle priorities. Initially, after being wounded he could no longer talk, walk or provide for his family. During this time in his life he had to rely on other people to provide the necessities.
“There were times in my transition that there were people there to give my family rides to and from the hospital. There were people who came to just give assurance, not only to myself but also to my family. Those were organizations, those were companies, those were churches, those were other families of injured Soldiers. That was all of us coming together just trying to make the best out of a situation.”
Shell talked about the kindness of many organizations and people and how it gave him the strength to recover. He named many CFC affiliated organizations that supported his transition to recovery and out of the Army to become a federal employee.
He said the organizations were woven into the fabric of his family and talked about the difficulty at the beginning to be compassionate and emotionally connected. Shell credited CFC organizations focused on family and military kids for making it easier.
“I leave you with what I think is the most important thing, and that was something a seven-year-old said to a nine-year-old. We do these things not for the accolades. We don’t do these things for people to pat us on the back. We should do these things, because we just want to be one of the good guys.”
Choose your cause and Show Some Love today at https://cfcgiving.opm.gov/welcome.
- NAVSEA -