PHOTO CAPTION: Members of the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation compete in the Tug-of-War event Sept. 2 at Moon Lake during the Garrison Organizational Day. (Photo by Katherine Rosario, cleared for public release, not for commercial use, attribution requested.)
Garrison employees team up at Organizational Day
Sep 13, 2010
By Katherine Rosario
FORT RILEY, Kan. – Garrison employees enjoyed a day of games and friendly competition Sept. 2 at the annual Organization Day at Moon Lake.
Employees sat at long benches or relaxed in the sun while eating lunch, before splitting up into teams to compete in tug-o-war, horseshoes, volleyball and bucket brigade.
"Org Day is a great way to bring resiliency and commodore to the garrison employees," said Jason Samson, participant and vice president for Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers.
Dewayne Miller, a target device repairman, also participated in Org Day events and competed with his team of seven in tug-o-war.
"It brings in unity amongst civil-service employees. We can learn and understand each other’s jobs and have an appreciation for what everyone does," he said.
Melissa Kinney, Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation marketing chief, said it’s important to recognize that even the Garrison employees need a morale booster sometimes, and events like Org Day are a great way to make that happen.
"Sometime when we’re part of the Garrison and constantly building morale for others, we need to step back and remember that our team needs some morale boosting, too," she said.
Some Garrison employees enjoyed the event by volunteering. Beth Avilla, program analyst for the Directorate of Public Works, helped run the bucket brigade game throughout the day.
She said the game originated from the fire department when they created it as a fun game for a DPW picnic years ago.
Teams of four station themselves along the path between a water trough and a makeshift house with a roof. The roof has a long gutter running along it that empties into two buckets at the bottom. The team that fills the bucket first wins.
"This is a good way to build morale and a good time for Garrison to get together and have fun working as a team," she said.
The Garrison command team also attended the event.
"On a day like this you can see guys and girls hanging out across the team and that’s probably the most important thing we get out of this," said Col. Kevin Brown, garrison commander. "We’re all on the same team and what a great team it is."
He acknowledged the hard work the Garrison employees put in throughout the fiscal year.
"At the end of the day pride does count, and you should be proud of the fact that as hard as the work was, we got it done," he said. "I am incredibly thankful … and you deserve a day like today."
Event winners were:
Horseshoes first place- DPW
Horseshoes 2nd place- NEC
Tug-o-war 2nd place NEC
Tug-o-war 1st place- DES
Volleyball 2nd place- DPW
Volleyball 1st place- DFMWR
Bucket brigade 2nd place- DES
Bucket brigade 1st place- DPW
Overall winner 2010- DPW
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